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Comcast is rolling out mid-split upgrades to prepare for DOCSIS 4.0
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It expects to have 50% of its network updated to mid-split by end of 2024
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In addition the company is growing overall passings
Dave Watson, CEO of Comcast Cable, said today at a JP Morgan investor conference, “The main long-term competitor for us is fiber.”
Comcast is in the process of rolling out mid-split upgrades and preparing for the launch of DOCSIS 4.0. It recently announced it doubled mid-splits year over year and now reaches 40% of its footprint.
“By the end of the year we’ll be at 50% mid-splits,” said Watson. “Once we do mid-splits, it opens up the ability to come in and do DOCSIS 4.0. And DOCSIS 4.0 ushers in multi-gig symmetrical. We have three markets that are active with 4.0.”
Those markets are select areas of Colorado Springs, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The JP Morgan analyst asked Watson why Comcast didn’t accelerate its network upgrade pace given the heightened competitive environment from fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA).
Watson said the company has previously been asked if it’s holding back on network investments to manage capital intensity. He said, “We’re not holding back one bit. We’re in position with where we’re building, where we’re doing upgrades and where we’re ushering in multi-gig symmetrical. We’ve gone up against fiber for a very long period of time, and I think we have a good road map for how to compete.”
In addition, the company is growing passings.
Watson said, “Before 2023, we were at around 700,000-800,000 passings. Last year we were at 1.1 million. I think we’ll do that again this year, maybe a little bit more. So, we’re adding more passings on top of this significant upgrade effort.”
Recently, Comcast touted a rural broadband project in Stafford County, Virginia, highlighting that this is a public-private project between Comcast and the county. The cable company says it is involved in public-private partnerships across its national footprint. In Stafford County, Comcast deployed its Xfinity hybrid fiber coax network to connect more than 680 previously unserved residents and businesses. Comcast didn’t say why it chose to build an HFC network in a greenfield environment, rather than doing fiber to the home.
