Lightpath said Wednesday that it will expand its fiber network in western Connecticut with a 70-mile build that will connect two locations in the state -- Trumbull and Norwalk -- with Katonah, New York.

Lightpath provides fiber-based high-speed connections and services to businesses. Connecticut is home to 14 Fortune 500 companies participating in industries like advanced manufacturing, aerospace, bioscience, insurtech and medtech, according to Lightpath.

“Lightpath’s all-fiber fiber network offers organizations across all industries access to robust connectivity with the highest levels of flexibility, reliability and security,” Lightpath SVP of sales Doug Turtz said in a press release. “Lightpath continues to invest in Connecticut, as well as the greater New York City Metropolitan Area, as we have for over 30 years now. We are committed to enhancing our network and services for our existing customers, as well as continuing to bring Lightpath to new customers in more places.”

Lightpath is majority owned by Altice USA, which sold a 49.99% interest in the company to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners in 2020 in a deal valued at $3.2 billion. According to Lightpath, the Connecticut expansion is part of an aggressive growth strategy and that over the past year it has:

●    Reached a milestone of 20,000+ route miles and 13,500+ service locations

●    Completed a 300-mile expansion from New York metro to Ashburn, VA

●    Finished a 54-mile network extension throughout Princeton, New Jersey

●    Built a 100-mile of state-of-the-art network across Queens, New York

The company also recently opened new offices in Midtown Manhattan and Boston. ■  

Altice USA said it has named Matt Grover EVP and Head of Altice Business Services, the company’s commercial services division. He will report to Altice USA co-president and chief operating officer Hakim Boubazine. The appointment is effective immediately.

Grover is responsible for all Altice USA commercial products and services, including those offered under the Lightpath, Suddenlink and Optimum Business brands. He will focus on the continued growth of Altice Business Services as well as the delivery of key commercial business initiatives such as network expansion and the development of next-generation products and services.

“Matt is an incredible asset to Altice Business Services, and his decades-long experience working directly with business customers of all shapes and sizes makes him an excellent fit to lead our commercial business into the next era,” Boubazine said in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with Matt as we continue to focus on delivering best-in-class connectivity and superior customer service to meet the needs of all of the businesses we serve across the country.”

Grover first joined the company’s Lightpath division in 2001 and has nearly three decades of experience in the commercial telecommunications industry, most recently serving as SVP Commercial Sales for Altice Business Services where he oversaw the nationwide SMB sales organization including direct sales, call center sales, and partner sales channels. Prior to joining the company, Grover held various telecommunications management positions at AT&T and North American Telecom over nearly 10 years.

“Altice Business Services has a strong leadership team that is laser focused on providing customers with the solutions they need to drive their businesses forward, and I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this organization,” Grover said in a statement. “Looking ahead, we will accelerate our efforts to deliver innovative service and products such as managed services, cloud offerings, faster broadband speeds and data center connections to meet the evolving connectivity needs of our Lightpath, Optimum and Suddenlink business customers across the country.”

For decades, small cable operators have fought subscriber wars with telcos, satellite TV and more recently Silicon Valley streamers, but now there’s a powerful giant picking off commercial and residential customers that they never expected to see: Comcast.

The nation’s largest cable operator with 22.4 million video customers and more than 25.5 million broadband customers, Philadelphia-based Comcast has embarked on what seems to be a concerted effort to compete for commercial and residential services business with smaller, mostly incumbent mom and pop cable operators when the opportunity arises.

So far, Comcast has applied for and won franchise agreements in seven communities in New Hampshire, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, in each case competing against an incumbent that had been in those markets for several years. In Comcast’s view, this is a tiny step in a logical business strategy to provide large corporate clients in adjacent markets with soup-to-nuts business broadband service.

But to some, it is a cultural shift and the first hairline crack in the cable fraternity, bound by a decades-old unwritten oath: to stay out of one another’s markets. Cable territories have tended to be noncompetitive because of the expense in building plant and making accommodations to cities like free wiring to public buildings and paying percentage-of-revenue fees. That’s why it’s been exceedingly rare for one cable operator to compete against another within a given franchise area. Until now.

A Quiet War

Small and large cable operators aren’t always at odds, and most do find ways to cooperate, especially concerning standards and technological issues in organizations like CableLabs and NCTA: The Internet & Television Association.

Comcast’s first new franchise came in December 2017, when it won the right to overbuild Atlantic Broadband in Rochester, N.H. Rochester was one of several markets served by MetroCast Communications, which Atlantic purchased in January for $1.4 billion.

In May of this year, Comcast won a competing franchise in Waterford and New London, Conn., bordering its existing operations in Groton and Norwich, and again overbuilding Atlantic Broadband in a community of about 27,000 people. Later, the mega-company won franchise rights to compete against tiny Blue Ridge Communications — which has about 170,000 customers in total — in five communities in rural Lancaster County, Pa.

Atlantic Broadband declined comment.

Comcast applied over the summer for franchises in five communities in Pennsylvania — Warwick Township, Warwick Borough, Ephratah Township, Ephratah Borough and Lititz — all primarily to offer commercial services to businesses in the area. Comcast already offers cable and business services to customers in nearby Akron, Pa.

Bob Grove, vice president of communications for Comcast’s Keystone Region, confirmed that the company applied for and was granted franchises for the Lancaster County communities, but added it is still in the early stages of making decisions on specifics.

“I can tell you that our primary focus is on business service expansion where from time-to-time we explore new opportunities, based on a case-by-case analysis, to bring our state-of-the-art products and services to more businesses,” Grove said in an email message. “Some of our existing customers in the contiguous footprint and shared DMA have operations in this area, which is why it made sense for us to expand our commercial network here. We’re also exploring limited residential opportunities, but that’s in the very preliminary stages as well.”

The markets in competing operators’ areas are pretty small, compared to some of Comcast’s big markets such as Chicago, San Francisco and Minneapolis. But they are home to some fairly large public and commercial institutions that could be candidates for Comcast’s commercial services offerings.

New London, for example, has several leading liberal arts colleges including Connecticut College and Mitchell College, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the region’s major performing arts center, The Garde Arts Center.

Lancaster County is home to several large businesses and health care facilities, including Johnson & Johnson and retirement communities in Lititz, Pa. In Rochester, manufacturer Albany International and Safran Aerospace are among the largest employers.

While there is nothing illegal or unsavory about Comcast’s actions — there is no such thing as an exclusive franchise agreement, and any company, cable, telecom or otherwise, can apply for a franchise in any municipality — it does appear to violate cable’s long-held “gentlemen’s agreement” not to compete. That unwritten rule dates back to the early days of cable and is a sore point for cable pioneers.

“When I started in this business, we all helped each other,” said former Buford Media CEO Ben Hooks, a longtime cable executive who retired earlier this year after more than 50 years in the business. “You don’t see that, especially with Comcast. As far as they’re concerned, there’s them and there’s the rest of the industry.”

Comcast isn’t the first cable operator to tweak the gentlemen’s agreement — Midcontinent Communications overbuilt Cable One in Fargo, N.D., in 2013, and others have done it in small markets over the years. But Comcast’s latest moves into these smaller markets are perhaps the strongest proof of how competitive the video and broadband market has become.

“Comcast is going out and aggressively looking at properties that are run by other cable companies,” a cable executive who asked not to be named said. “But in doing that, they run the risk of us doing it to them.”

To be clear, Comcast hasn’t started an all-out assault on small cable operators. According to its 2017 annual report, the MSO has about 6,400 franchises across the country, and so far only about a half dozen are overbuilds of incumbents. But the practice appears to be erasing one of the last vestiges of the old cable industry. What once was a sense of camaraderie between large and small operators is quickly evaporating.

Some of that has to do with economics. The cost of extending fiber plant into an adjacent community has dropped dramatically over the years, and commercial broadband service is one of the more profitable segments for cable operators. Once the plant is built, it makes sense to use it to its fullest extent.

Cox Communications spokesman Todd Smith wouldn’t comment on another cable operator’s business strategy. But although Cox mainly focuses on markets where it has existing franchise agreements, he added, it sometimes follows business customers beyond those borders.

“We primarily do this via strategic partnerships and network agreements with other providers,” Smith said. “For example, we’ve invested in Unite Private Networks and have jointly pursued business outside our footprint where it makes sense.”

Charter Communications did not return requests for comment.

Another factor is the disparity in sizes of large and small cable operators. Comcast dominates with 22.4 million video and 25.5 million broadband subscribers, followed by Charter with 16.1 million video and 23.3 million broadband customers. Go further down the list, though, and the numbers plummet — No. 3 Cox has about 6 million customers and No. 4 Altice USA has 3.3 million video and 4.1 million broadband subscribers. Mediacom Communications — the fifth-largest cable operator, and the No. 9 pay TV provider overall — has less than 1 million video customers.

“A company today like Comcast has so much more margin/size over a small company that if they want to expand into an adjacent territory, it is no contest,” Hooks said. “Now, if they were to take on Charter, the competition would be a greater challenge. While Comcast still has the advantage, Charter is large enough that it would be ugly.”

Hooks added that the myth that cable operators stick together is just that, a myth. It hasn’t been that way for decades. Only now, with a consolidated industry and regulatory pressure, it’s becoming a little more obvious.

“The days that small and large cable companies work together is no longer the case,” Hooks said.

Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak sees nothing sinister in Comcast extending its reach in to small operators’ territories. And he doesn’t see the practice as a sign the market is getting tougher.

“Who said the market is bad?” Wlodarczak said. “I don’t see Comcast overbuilding Charter or any significantly upgraded cable operator. Comcast is expanding its footprint by roughly 600,000 to 800,000 households and businesses every year — most of which is new build — and extending into adjacent areas cost effectively where the existing small cable operator cannot afford to upgrade properly is a logical move.”

Comcast has been expanding its footprint at a fairly steady pace over at least the past decade; it passed 57.5 million homes in 2017, up from 53.8 million in 2013. But the notion that it is providing a service to a market where the incumbent can’t afford to upgrade its network isn’t entirely accurate. Blue Ridge, despite its size, has been investing heavily in its network, and has offered broadband service at 1 Gigabit per second to its entire territory since June.

Blue Ridge did not return calls for comment. But in an article in the Lititz Record Express published on July 18, Blue Ridge vice president of operations Mark Massenheimer seemed to take Comcast’s actions in stride, touting the company’s local presence and its commitment to invest in its network.

“Our employees live and work in the towns and neighborhoods we serve and many have developed relationships with customers over the years,” Massenheimer told the Record Express in an email. “Continuing to invest in our network infrastructure so that we can provide the best technology available is a responsibility we take very seriously.”

Over the past 18 months, he added, Blue Ridge has doubled its internet speeds, offered new HD channels, launched a whole-home WiFi product and completed the deployment of 1-Gbps broadband service throughout its footprint.“We didn’t do these things because of competition,” Masenheimer told the Record Express. “We did them because our customers deserve the best, we did them because it was the right thing to do. We’re a small company with the ability to deliver big things and we’re just getting started.”

Blunting the Local Edge

A key to small operators’ success over the years has been local presence — employees live, work and play in the same communities and have built strong relationships with customers over the years. But besides using their greater scale and resources to offer a wider range of services, large companies like Comcast can also claim a local presence in many of these markets because one of the key points in entering a new franchise is proximity to the existing network. Comcast may not be in that specific town today, but it probably has been in a town less than 10 miles away for years.

For example, Rochester, N.H., became one of 104 communities in the state where Comcast provides service, and is just 11 miles from a Comcast system in Dover, N.H. In Pennsylvania, Comcast already has a system in nearby Akron, which is just 6.5 miles from Lititz and 3.5 miles from Ephratah and Ephratah Township.

Such moves are likely to grow. Adding to the attraction of smaller markets is that the cost of deploying fiber is going down. And merely extending a line from an existing network is even cheaper.

On a conference call with analysts to discuss its Q3 results, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei, talking about costs associated with its own plan to build a fiber-to-the-home network in its footprint, said that in Europe, where its parent, Altice N.V. is based, the cost to build fiber is about 500 euros (about $570) per home. He expected to build Altice USA’s domestic network for considerably less.

According to some members of the cable financial community, the cost of extending fiber is a little higher in rural communities, but is still pretty low, and much cheaper than greenfield construction. In a typical 60-homesper-mile small cable configuration, the cost of extending plant can be as low as $650 per household.

For their part, many small operators are taking it in stride, chalking up the emergence of yet another competitor as just that, and hoping that their local presence will be enough to keep customers from switching. “Competition is here,” Eagle Broadband CEO Gary Shorman said. “And if you are not ready, you’d better get out of the way. Comcast is not a government subsidized business, unlike some of the competitors we see in some rural markets.”

The temptation to overbuild incumbents is nothing new. RCN, WideOpenWest and countless other companies have done it for years. But traditional cable operators have avoided it because of the economics.

“In most cases overbuilds were a disaster,” Hooks said. “Neither party won very much, both were fighting for the same customer, cutting prices and neither company was doing well. It was just a tiresome battle.”

That was the attitude of most large operators just a few years ago.

When Charter Communications completed its $80 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2016, one of the requirements of federal approval was that it overbuild 2 million customers with broadband outside of its footprint. At the time, Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said he would overbuild telcos, not cable, because of M&A concerns.

At a MoffettNathanson conference in 2016, Rutledge said he told the FCC he couldn’t overbuild another cable company “because then I could never buy it.” He later added that overbuilding a cable operator would be business suicide. “Why would we go where we could get killed?” he said at the 2016 conference.

When Comcast was in the running to buy Time Warner Cable in 2015, executive vice president David Cohen said that there was little chance that Comcast would try to compete with a combined Charter-TWC if its deal wasn’t approved, for two reasons — economics and history.

Cohen, according to reports at the time, said the high capital intensity of building a cable network is the main reason “that the cable part of this industry has never competed against each other.” Although franchises are nonexclusive, “given the expense to build in any particular community I think no cable company, or only rarely would a cable company choose to compete against another cable company,” he added.

So what changed in the cable industry over the past five years? Everything.

Cable operators have lost a collective 4 million video customers in the past five years and Comcast alone has lost nearly 2 million. While Comcast’s broadband growth has been healthy — up 4.1 million since 2013 — it has been slowing.

Business services growth has far outpaced residential broadband, averaging double-digit percentage growth annually, but it too is beginning to approach a wall. Small to midsized businesses, the lifeblood of cable commercial offerings in the early years of the service, are becoming saturated. And large enterprises with more than 500 employees are a tough nut to crack.

With over-the-top and subscription VOD competitors increasingly pounding on their door, Comcast may feel it has no other choice. Extending existing fiber plant is a relatively cheap way to boost revenue, and if the cable company mainly focuses on commercial customers, the profits are even higher.

In the end, it is the small cable operator that could feel the brunt of this new growth initiative. With programming costs rising, customers clamoring for cheaper, skinnier packaging and regulatory pressures building up, small cable now has to worry about the approach of a deep-pocketed, highly experienced, well-known competitor for one of its most profitable business lines.

“That’s a lot to be worried about,” Hooks said.

Cable One reported an 11.4% year over year uptick in second quarter revenue to $268.4 million, driven by its surging residential data and business services operations.

Residential high-speed internet revenue increased by 18.3% to $122.4 million, even with the user base only growing by 1.2% to 592,234 customers. Julie Laulis, CEO of the Phoenix, Ariz.-based operator, attributed the revenue growth to customers responding to price cuts on higher-speed tiers.

For example, with 200 Mbps tier priced at $65 a month (around 32 cents per Mbps), a number of Cable One customers saw the value in jumping from the 100 Mbps tier, which is priced at $55 (55 cents per meg).

Related: Cable One Prepping 1-Gig Rollout in NewWave Systems

“Customers are making a call on value,” Laulis told investment analysts during Thursday’s earnings call. “When we reduce the prices on faster tiers, ARPU goes cup because the selling goes up.”

Revenue from business services, meanwhile, increased by 18.4% to $38.4 million, with the customer base increasing by 8.3% year over year. With the mid-sized cable company offering products like the 2 Gbps Piranha Fiber, Laulis declared Cable One a “disrupter” in the business services market.

Cable One actually saw a 3.1% revenue increase in residential video to $87.4 million, with its video base shrinking by 11.4% year over year to 323,514.

Speaking to Cable One’s value as an acquisition target, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett noted that the company has “already lost so many of its video subscribers that, for those worried about video cord-cutting, it has been de-risked

“And the fact that they don’t make any money on video de-risks them still further,” he added.

The company reported a 57.2% jump in net income to $43.8 million.

Notably, Cable One’s financials are skewed a bit by the still-digesting 2017 New Wave acquisition. Only two months of New Wave data are included in the comparable 2017 second quarter.

Related: Cable One Touts Gigabit Deployment Milestone

The skew isn’t massive—with New Wave factored out, for example, net income increased by 57.1% to $40.5 million.

Thursday’s earnings call marked the last public appearance for retiring Cable One CEO Kevin Coyle. Former WOW chief executive Stephen Cochran will officially take over for Coyle on Aug. 13.

Cable One said it has launched a new managed WiFi service for small and medium-sized business that offers expanded coverage and can be self-managed by customers.

The new Managed WiFi service, called “ONE Gateway,” covers up to 10,000 square feet when deployed and allows business customers to manage their own WiFi settings through a mobile application.

The “ONE Gateway” app is available at no charge from Apple and Android mobile app stores. Through the app, business customers will be able to manage their WiFi network settings, including the SSID name, password, security settings and channel settings.

“Our new Managed WiFi service offers the added features and easy-to-use functionality our customers have been asking for,” said Cable One vice president of business services Chris Boone in a statement. “In addition to enhanced security, business customers now have access to popular features such as self-management, a guest network and multiple SSIDs.”

Cable ONE Business customers can add the managed WiFi service to any business internet plan for $9.95 per month. Up to five coverage extenders can be added for $5.95 each per month. 

Comcast Business said it is working to bounce back from a voice service outage that hit customers on Wednesday.  

Comcast didn’t pinpoint the source of the outage, but said that service has been restored to most of its customers.  

“We experienced a service interruption today with our Comcast Business Voice and VoiceEdge Select services and we apologize,” an official said in a statement. “Our engineers began working to address the issue immediately and services have been restored for most of our customers. We recognize that some customers are still impacted and we expect the issue to be fully resolved shortly. We have every resource focused on getting everyone back online and apologize again to the customers who were affected.” 

RELATED: Comcast Business Brings Voice Mobility to SMBs 

VoiceEdge is a cloud-based voice and unified communications platform that Comcast Business introduced in 2013.

At last check, the Comcast Cares Twitter handle had pinned a tweet updating customers about the outage:  

[embed]https://twitter.com/comcastcares/status/1004410077544046592[/embed]

Spectrum Enterprise, a unit of Charter Communications focuses on the large business services segment, said it will invest more than $1 billion in 2018 to increase the density of its national fiber network.

Charter said this will be the second straight year in which the company has invested in excess of $1 billion exclusively in Spectrum Enterprise, which will be looking to expand on a network of nearly 200,000 fiber-lit buildings.

RELATED: Meeks to Take Business Services Role at Charter

Spectrum Enterprise will absorb the bulk of the upfront costs of fiber construction for most new enterprise clients in its footprint for solutions such as Fiber Internet Access, Ethernet and voice trunks (SIP/PRI).

The investment will also come to add fiber density as wired networks become a significant backhaul channel for a coming wave of 5G-based services and other bandwidth-intensive offerings. 

RELATED: Cable’s Dense Infrastructure Suited for 5G Small Cell Networks: Analyst

"As fiber connectivity has become fundamental to economic growth, we are focused on making our fiber infrastructure more accessible to clients, and reshaping their experience to align with the evolving realities of today’s modern enterprise," Phil Meeks, EVP and president of Spectrum Enterprise, said in a statement. "Advanced video and virtual reality solutions, cloud, IoT and the future of 5G all depend on a reliable and highly-dense fiber network. Our commitment is to ensure that our clients have the most robust fiber network and solutions to grow today and take advantage of future technologies that have immense demands on bandwidth."

Comcast and Independence Health Group have formed a partnership centered on creating and launching an internet-based patient care technology and communications platform.  

The platform, to be accessible by patients in the home or on the go, will be designed to improve the overall efficiency and experience of the care delivery process between health care providers and patients, they said.  

RELATED: Cox Makes Home Healthcare Connection 

Additionally, the new platform will be accessible nationally, across multiple distribution channels and devices.  

With its network of subsidiaries, Philadelphia-based Independence Health Group serves about 8.5 million people in 24 states, and Washington, D.C., including 2.5 million in southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Comcast, a founding member of The Health Care Innovation Collaborative in Philadelphia, said it has initiated several partnerships within the health care industry. Comcast said it recently collaborated on a medically-approved Healthy Aging Series with UC Davis, producing 108 videos on topics, including heart health, fitness and exercise, and nutrition.  

"Rapid technological advances in recent years have changed the expectations consumers have about accessing and using goods and services. Health care is no exception,” Daniel J. Hilferty, president and CEO of Independence President, said in a statement. “Through this collaboration, we will explore how we can best use technology to enhance how consumers access and use health care services, which we know at times can be frustrating.”  

"Comcast's unique experience in technology and content can be an enabler for disruptive, personalized, and media-rich innovations in health care," added Sam Schwartz, Comcast’s chief business development officer. "Independence is a company steeped in innovation and completely committed to the consumer experience. We're excited about this new partnership and the opportunity to work together using technology to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of patient communications and education." 

Cox Business said it has rolled out a managed WiFi offering to customers in Cox’s northeast markets as well as parts of the company’s southwest region.

A rollout across Cox’s national footprint will occur in the coming months, the company said.

The wider deployment comes after Cox Business started to trial a managed WiFi service for business customers in 2017.

RELATED: Comcast Gets Down to Business with WiFi 

Cox Business Managed WiFi delivers up to 1 Gbps for both private and public WiFi networks, and provides partners with the ability to select the speeds available to guests. Cox said the offering can reach up to 36,000 square feet indoors, with backhaul options up to 1 Gbps for up to 250 guests and employees.

Customers have access to a range of options, including network passcodes, splash page login screens, as well as power management and rogue access point detection.

Packages include Guest WiFi (for business customers, guests and vendors, and up to four guest network IDs with splash page passcode control), Private WiFi (for business employees and internal use, with up to four private network IDs with encrypted and private network ID passcode access control); and Total WiFi (private and guest networks, each with separate access controls).

“A smart business is a connected business,” Steve Rowley, executive vice president at Cox Business, said in a statement. “Employees and customers expect superior connectivity while working, shopping or in some situations waiting. Cox Business Managed WiFi delivers superior network management, with the security and agile functionality that businesses demand.”

Mediacom Business, Mediacom Communications’s commercial services unit, said it will soon boost the downstream broadband speeds across several tiers, a move that follows its national rollout of 1-Gig capabilities using DOCSIS 3.1.

RELATED: Mediacom Goes Big With DOCSIS 3.1

Starting April 1, Mediacom Business will upgrade existing customers that are taking the following downstream speed tiers:

-10 Mbps rises to 60 Mbps

-20 Mbps jumps to 100 Mbps

-50 Mbps rises to 300 Mbps

“As a technology company, we know broadband fuels innovation and erases geographical boundaries of competition, particularly in rural America,” said Dan Templin, SVP of Mediacom Business, in a statement. “Because we expanded the top-line capabilities of our fiber-rich network, we are now able to significantly enhance all of our other existing service levels.”

While it’s not yet clear precisely how much revenue machineQ is bringing in the door yet, the Comcast-owned unit focused on enterprise Internet of Things services, been adding customers at a healthy clip in the early going. 

machineQ said its service, which runs a Low Power Wide Area Network using the LoRaWAN protocol, has  notched deployments with companies focused on areas spanning business asset tracking, rodent control to water service utilities, and has signed on the following as new customers:

-Adveez, an IoT hardware and software solutions provider that monitors a business’s critical assets at locations such as airports, seaports and in cities.

- CareBand, a maker of connected wearables aimed at reducing injuries to seniors due to dementia-related wandering by providing real-time, precise location tracking.

-Neptune, a software and hardware provider to the water industry that serves more than 4,000 utilities across North America. Neptune’s new, LoRa-enabled L900 series of water endpoints supports water meter reading and sensor applications that require low-power consumption and long-range connectivity.

-Pansofik,a developer of digital solutions designed to help small- and mid-sized businesses and building owners integrate IoT and data analytics within their organizations.

-Victor, a maker of rodent control systems is using LoRaWAN-based sensor technologies operating on the machineQ network.

Examples of other known machineQ customers include SteamIQ (stream trap performance monitoring), Reach (lighting control), Instapio (data management), PNI Sensor Corp. (smart parking sensors), and Coris (temperature monitoring tailored for the medical industry). 

machineQ also has tech alliances in place with Semtech (LoRA devices and wireless RF technology) and Murata (electronic components, connectivity modules and power conversion technologies).

RELATED: CableLabs Powering Up Open-Source LoRaWAN Solution

Comcast introduced machineQ in 2016 via trials in Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago, and has since rolled out its LoRa-based service to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Miami, Minneapolis, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

Fellow cable operator Cox Communications bowed Cox2M, an IoT services unit, earlier this week. Dish Network, meanwhile, plans to spend big on a wireless network buildout for a narrowband IoT offering, and recently acquired Parkifi, a maker of sensors for smart parking lots.

RELATED: Comcast IoT Unit Heads Into a Dozen More Markets

“IoT solution providers are seeking secure, reliable and highly scalable network connectivity, device management capabilities, and ‘as-a-service’ IoT network services, like geo-location, to speed their time-to-market, and our new customers have chosen machineQ because it can be deployed across a wide range of different enterprise use cases,” Alex Khorram, general manager of machineQ, said in a statement. “We want IoT solution providers to know that we can handle their network needs, so they can focus on bringing their innovative solutions to market to the benefit of their end users.”

Following earlier trial work, Cox Communications has launched Cox2M, an Internet-of-Things unit that offers connected asset services that are targeted to business customers and emerging opportunities with smart cities.

Cox said the unit’s new offering provides turnkey services that monitors and tracks commercial assets and inventory, including vehicles and power lines. Service examples include automotive lot management, smart cities (lighting transit, etc.), connected healthcare, and fault detection. Cox believes that Cox2M’s service line can be used to serve several types of industries spanning transportation, cities and campuses, energy companies and utilities, agriculture, retail and real estate.

Corporate cousin Cox Automotive is an early adopter of Cox2M’s services, as its Manheim vehicle marketplace has teamed on a custom app that delivers real-time tracking of vehicles across auction lots. Cox said that solution was piloted last year and is to be implemented across the U.S. and Canada to connect more than 500,000 vehicles using a Low Power Wide Area IoT network. Other Cox Automotive brands are also considering the platform for additional applications, Cox said.

“Cox connects millions of people and businesses today, and we’re constantly thinking about how to deliver powerful new outcomes through that experience,” Sujata Gosalia, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Cox, said in a statement. “With Cox2M, we will play an even more significant role in supporting the smart businesses and smart cities of the future.”

Cox said Cox2M was incubated in its New Growth organization over the past two years. It’s led by Cox executive director Barak Weinisman.

Cox is also the latest cable operator to launch a unit focused on IoT opportunities. Comcast, for example, has launched machineQ, a unit that entered the early stages of its commercial rollout last year.

Comcast IoT Unit Heads Into a Dozen More Markets

Comcast Business has added a “one-click” audio conferencing app to VoiceEdge, its cloud-based phone service, that’s accessible on desk phones, mobile devices, and other types of phones.

The unit of Comcast, now focused on small-, mid- and enterprise-sized businesses, said the app simplifies how conference calls are initiated, joined and managed.

RELATED: Comcast Floats Business Phone Service Into the Cloud

VoiceEdge Conferencing, how included for all VoiceEdge subscribers, enables users to initiate a conference call with up to 50 participants, along with management controls that, for example, let hosts to view and identify all participants. It also removes the need for users to remember long phone numbers and PINs.

The app also enables click-to-dial from commonly used business productivity tools such as Google Chrome, Skype for Business, and Microsoft OWA, the company said.

“With an increasingly distributed and mobile workforce, conference calls are an important tool for keeping teams connected, but this can become challenging from a user standpoint when different people are trying to access a conference call while traveling, in remote locations, from a different office,” John Guillaume, vice president, product management at Comcast Business, said in a statement.

Comcast’s business services unit pulled down revenues of $1.62 billion in Q4 2017, putting it on an annual run rate of almost $6.5 billion.

Verizon Fios has launched a new TV tier tailored for small- and mid-sized business customers that features a lineup of more than 45 channels, with a focus on news and business-focused channels.

That tier, called Current TV, includes CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and HLN, along with major local broadcast TV networks.

That tier starts at $40 per month with no contract, or $25 per month for one year and $30 per month in year two when those customers sign up for a two-year contract. Pricing on Current TV improved when TV is bundled with other Verizon services.

Current TV complements several other pay TV tiers for business customers, including Local TV (15-plus channels, starting at $25 per month under the no-contract price), as well as pricier packages that include lineups as large as 375 channels (145-plus in HD).

BCN Telecom, a company focused on simplifying connectivity for companies with multiple business locations, said last week it has expanded its broadband aggregation offering with the addition of Cable One, Mediacom Communications and Suddenlink (Altice USA).

BCN said it enables its customers to get connectivity from multiple service providers in multiple locations, aggregating that all onto a consolidated invoice that covers all services and locations and manages it all with a sole support team. BCN said it has more than 25,000 business clients and 3,000-plus sales partners.

BCN said its portfolio also includes services from AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox Communications, Optimum (formerly Cablevision Systems, now part of Altice USA), Charter Communications and Verizon, among others.

Related: Cable ONE Targets WiFi Dead Zones

"The addition of Cable One, Mediacom and Suddenlink significantly enhances our ability to provide the nationwide aggregation of broadband services which is critical for multi-location businesses," Julian Jacquez, BCN’s COO, said in a statement.

"Large multi-location solutions in industries including retail, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, education and more, are at the center of the BCN sweet spot," added Michael Ginsburg, BCN’s VP of sales. "The availability of a broad range of nationwide broadband services including DSL, Cable, and Internet over Fiber (IoF) along with our full suite of Dedicated and Wireless 4G LTE options, provides a clear advantage for partners who are engaged with these companies."

Comcast also has an initiative underway to serve enterprise customers that require services that are in and out of the MSO’s traditional footprint. Of recent note, Comcast signed a national services deal with Taco Bell that includes the reliance of Comcast's network agreements with other MSOs.

RELATED: Comcast Business Bows New Unit Targeting Fortune 1000

Comcast Business said its Enterprise Solutions unit has notched a deal to provide managed services, including guest WiFi, for Taco Bell and its 6,200 company and franchise locations in the U.S.

RELATED: Comcast Gets Down to Business With WiFi

Financial terms were not announced, but the restaurant chain has retained Comcast Business to support the tech requirements for its national business operations, including a “redundant, highly-available network infrastructure.”

Tied in, Comcast Business will provide in-store managed WiFi networks and managed router systems for each restaurant that is capable of a minimum of 20 Mbps down/3 Mbps up, 4G business “continuity” at each location, and redundant connections at each location.

Comcast Business said it will also provide distributed IPsec VPN network that gives Taco Bell the ability to collect and exchange massive amounts of data at very high speeds across Taco Bell locations.

The deal comes a little over two years after Comcast introduced an enterprise division that targets large enterprises with multiple locations, and aims to build on Comcast Business’s work with small- and mid-sized business customers.

RELATED: Comcast Business Bows New Unit Targeting Fortune 1000

UPDATE: The national focus of the deal means that Comcast Business will be serving Taco Bell locations that fall outside of Comcast's regular cable footprint. Tied to its Fortune 1000 focus, Comcast has secured network agreements with several other cable operators to provide connectivity outside its footprint, and that strategy is in play with the Taco Bell deal, the company confirmed. 

“Comcast Business understands the unique network demands of national restaurant chains and looks forward to supporting Taco Bell, one of the technology leaders of the fast food industry,”  Glenn Katz, VP & GM Enterprise Solutions at Comcast Business, said in a statement. “By understanding the ever-changing demands of this highly competitive industry and having the largest high capacity network infrastructure in the country, Comcast is in a unique position to provide and manage all aspects of a service deployment within the quick serve restaurant (QSR) sector, whether they are a smaller restaurant group or a national chain with several thousand locations.”

Following its residential deployment of DOCSIS 3.1-based broadband service, Comcast Business has launched two new tiers of service on its HFC network serving its western U.S. area footprint. 

Those tiers – Business Internet 1 Gig (up to 1 Gbps in the downstream) and Business Internet 500 (up to 500 Mbps in the downstream) are now available to businesses in California, Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Utah and Washington, the company said.

RELATED: Comcast Business Launches ‘ActiveCore’

Those launches follow similar ones in Comcast’s Central, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.

Comcast also offers multi-gig services to businesses on its Ethernet-powered fiber network.

Comcast’s business services division pulled in revenues of $1.57 billion in Q3, putting it on an annual run rate of $6.28 billion.

The bulk of those revenues come from small- and mid-sized business customers, but Comcast is also shooting up market by pursuing larger, enterprise-class deals.

RELATED: Comcast Business Bows New Unit Targeting Fortune 1000

Cisco Systems confirmed Monday that it has inked a deal to acquire BroadSoft, a maker of cloud calling and contact center products, for $1.9 billion in cash.

Under the deal, Cisco plans to buy the Gaithersburg, Md.,-based company for $55 per share, in cash, in exchange for each share of BroadSoft.

Cisco said the deal will bolster its Unified Communications business and help it address “millions of aging TDM lines” that are poised to pivot to IP technology and cloud-native solutions in the years ahead.

The purchase will also give Cisco more exposure to cable operators, such as Cox Communications, Charter Communications, and Comcast, that work with BroadSoft to deliver hosted-voice services to business customers. BroadSoft works with more than 450 telecom carriers in 80 countries, Rob Salvagno, VP of corporate business development at Cisco, noted in this blog post.

RELATED: Cox Business Mobilizes Its Hosted Voice Platform

BroadSoft pulled in Q2 revenues of $88.8 million, up 9% from the year-ago quarter, along with a net loss of $3 million, or 10 cents per share. It’s forecasting Q3 revenues of $84 million to $90 million.

"Together, Cisco and BroadSoft will deliver a robust suite of collaboration capabilities across every market segment," Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Applications Business Group, said in a statement. "We believe that our combined offers, from Cisco's collaboration technology for enterprises to BroadSoft's suite for small and medium businesses delivered through Service Providers will give customers more choice and flexibility."

Cisco and BroadSoft expect to close the deal during Q1 of 2018. They intend to continue to operate as separate companies, with BroadSoft employees joining Cisco's Unified Communications Technology Group, led by Vice President and General Manager Tom Puorro, under the Applications Group led by Trollope.

Altice USA said it will launch a hosted voice service that is targeted to small- and mid-sized business customers.

The service, Altice Business Hosted Voice, is powered by a proprietary platform (Altice Advanced Business Communications that was developed by Altice Labs.

Altice said its business-focused unit serves more than 375,000 businesses across 21 states via a  network comprised of over 14,000 fiber-lit locations, including more than 8,000 in the New York metro area.

Altice USA, formed via the acquisitions of Suddenlink Communications and Cablevision Systems Corp., said its hosted platform presently supports 2 million end users globally and is delivered over the company’s secure private network.

The cloud-based Altice Business Hosted Voice service features capabilities tailored for mobile workforces, including apps on Android or iOS devices to receive and make calls, transfer calls between devices, access voicemail remotely and configure call forwarding.

Altice said it’s selling the hosted voice product on a per-seat basis and flat-rate monthly plans.

“Our rollout of Altice Business Hosted Voice marks the U.S. introduction of Altice’s proprietary hosted voice platform, which underscores our commitment to introducing robust offerings for our U.S. customers,” Hakim Boubazine, co-president and COO of Altice USA, said in a statement .“By providing this critical communications service on our dedicated platform, we are best positioned to stay on the forefront of the fast-evolving needs of our customers, debuting new features as business demands change, and giving businesses freedom in how they communicate with clients and customers.”

Comcast Business said it has won a multi-year technology deal to deliver high-speed bandwidth services to Little Caesars Arena, a facility set to open next month and serve as the home of the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Pistons.

The deal, struck with Olympia Entertainment, also calls on Comcast Business to deploy and support a multi-terabit fiber network serving the rest of The Distinct Detroit, a 50-block revitalization project that will include residential and business tenants.

Comcast is outfitting Little Caesars Arena, set to open on Sept. 12, with dual 100-gig circuits.

Under the agreement, Comcast will also deploy more than 1,000 WiFi access points throughout the new arena and the surrounding buildings and event spaces.

Business in The District Detroit will manage their own private network and offer a separate WiFi service for patrons. Residents in the new district will also have access to other Comcast services, including video (via its X1 platform), voice, Xfinity Home and Xfinity Mobile.

Comcast said its multi-year network investment in The District Detroit is “upward of $11 million.”

The deal with Olympia Entertainment follows several other sporting venue agreements notched by Comcast Business, including NRG Stadium in Houston, Sun Trust Park in Georgia, the Denver Broncos’ Sports Authority Field, the Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park, the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Field and the Oakland A's Oakland Coliseum. 

Business services remains a strong growth area for Comcast. In Q2, revenues in that segment rose 12.6%, to $1.5 billion.

Comcast Business said it has extended DOCSIS 3.1-based broadband services to small- and mid-sized businesses in the MSO’s Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions.

There, Comcast is pitching cap-free, business-class service tiers that delivers up to 500 Mbps and 1 Gbps in the downstream direction. 

Comcast Business has been asked for pricing detail for those tiers in those regions, but noted that it varies based on a business’s location or number of locations to be served. However, the company confirmed that general pricing started at $499 per month for the 1-Gig service, and $399 for the 500 Mbps offering, when the operator unleashed D3.1-based services in January in markets such as Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville.

RELATED: Comcast Gets Down to Business With DOCSIS 3.1

The expanded reach of D3.1 to businesses covers areas such as Greater Boston; Greater Philadelphia; New Jersey; and northern Delaware; Baltimore, Md.; Charlottesville, Va.; and Washington, D.C.

Comcast Business also offers DOCSIS 3.1-based internet service in Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, Detroit, Chattanooga, Huntsville and Miami. The operator said it expects to launch those offerings -- marketed as Business Internet 1 Gig and Business Internet 500 -- in the majority of its service areas throughout 2017 and into 2018.

Comcast is using D3.1 on its widely deployed HFC networks to complement fiber-based options that are also tailored for business customers.

Business services continues to be a strong growth driver for Comcast. In Q2, revenues in that segment rose 12.6%, to $1.5 billion.

“Comcast is building the nation’s largest gig-speed network. We have been at the forefront of DOCSIS 3.1 deployment and today’s roll out further demonstrates our commitment to bringing this transformational technology to all businesses in our footprint,” Kevin O’Toole, senior vice president of product management at Comcast Business, said in a statement.

Cable ONE’s business unit said it’s considering Mississippi as a contender for its next launch of Piranha Fiber, a PON-based platform that currently delivers symmetrical speeds up to 2 Gbps.

Cable ONE Business currently offers Piranha Fiber in select markets, including Fargo, N.D.; and Norfolk, Neb.  Piranha Fiber supports several speed tiers, including an entry level service that offers 50 Mbps down by 5 Mbps. Cable ONE said pricing starts at $99.95 per month when bundled with its business phone service along with a three-year commitment.

RELATED: MCTV Pushes Fiber-to-the-Premises Overlay with ‘Excellerate’ Initiative

“Cable ONE has invested more than $75 million in Mississippi over the past five years on network upgrades and enhancements in order to bring the latest technology and fastest speeds to our customers, Chris Boone, VP of business services for Cable ONE, said in a statement. “This makes Mississippi an ideal fit for our next launch. As part of our ongoing investment and with the launch of this new service, we would be extending our plant to previously unserviceable areas in Mississippi while contributing to the economic development of the state.”

Several cable operators offer multi-gig speeds to businesses using fiber.  On the residential end,  Comcast sells Gigabit Pro, an FTTP-based, symmetrical 2 Gbps service, in several markets.

Washington, D.C. -- "High speed data has years and years before showing signs of maturity," Cable One executive chairman Tom Might declared here Wednesday during a panel at the American Cable Association Summit

Echoing a growing view that over-the-top content is replacing traditional linear TV as a favored video source, especially among younger viewers,  Might said, "Were making more money on video today than we were five years ago," noting that about half of Cable One’s subscribers are focused on high-speed data service (HSD).

"We think over-the-top content is a great complement to our HSD-centric strategy," he said during a panel on "Leveraging Disruption in the Video Market." Might noted that Netflix service is integrated on Cable One’s TiVo boxes, but he admitted that "those are tough negotiations."

Might cited conversations with other independent cable operators here during ACA 24th annual Summit, with many of them skeptical about pulling back from linear video carriage. He said that Cable One applied Nielsen analytics to its services package starting about five years ago and found that "customers in some categories were not as profitable." 

"The psychographics of our own customer base" was surprising,  he confessed, but the company recognized that traditional customers were "largely going to competitors or satellite."  Moreover, about 10% had completely cut the cord.

With those findings, Cable One "had this Eureka! moment when we identified the value of different kinds of customers," he explained.

Might also said that with its digital plant in place, the company is better able to serve enterprise customers.

"Business services have grown at a steady rate and have a long road of opportunity ahead," he said.

Moderator Mark Robichaux (editorial director of NewBay Media's Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable) pointed out that in the last three quarters, "cord cutting is up and network ratings are down," observing that those factors may be contributing to operators' decisions to focus on broadband delivery services and "no longer pushing video."

RELATED: NCTC Accelerating OTT Content Packaging for Cable Ops

Dwayne Benefield, VP and head of Sony's PlayStation Vue, confirmed that he sees "a symbiotic relationship" between cable operators and OTT providers such as his.

By streaming Netflix, games, live TV, music and other services, "it helps drive acquisition for partners at a local level," Benefield said. He acknowledged that Sony is "talking to many companies in this room." 

Since PS Vue is not strictly tied to the PlayStation console for distribution, Benefield focused on the opportunities for cable delivery of its content. He claimed that, "We have more than 90% customer satisfaction levels."

RELATED: PlayStation Vue Bites Into Apple TV

Michael Smith, another panelist and professor of Information Technology and Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University, advised that operators could "look at marrying their brand to Vue, especially to reach the target demographic of 18-34 year olds."

Smith also recommended "not to think about Netflix as another channel."

"It is fundamentally a different business," he said. Smith is co-author of Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment, a new book that delves into Netflix role in the evolving market.

Too Many Commercials?

As for legacy video providers finding new roles in the evolving digital marketplace, Elisabeth Sami of NBC News identified a major challenge as "how to keep strong brand connections."  She also cautioned about the growing ad load on linear TV.

"The ad load today is harming our collective business as we compete with OTT services," said Sami, SVP-global strategy and business development of NBC News Group. "We need to reinvent what an advertisement will look like in the future.  There's talk about shortening ad pods by 30% and doing more target advertising. We're having to think about that a lot internally," she explained.

Although viewership on NBC's cable news as well as broadcast newscasts has climbed -- substantially due to interest in recent political developments -- Sami said that the networks "don't have a one-to-one connection" with viewers. 

"We're establishing them [viewer interactions] digitally," she explained, citing social media components that are now integrated into NBC News programming.

O'Rielly Seeks Operator Input  

Earlier in the program, FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly  focused on Open Internet/net neutrality, Business Data Services and policy reform. 

"I hope we can reopen the decision," O'Rielly said of the Title II ruling of the previous FCC majority. He said he disagrees with prioritization, noting that it was "incredibly problematic on how it tried to bifurcate the industry." 

O'Rielly characterized FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's efforts to "remove barriers" via process reform as "near and dear to my heart” and describing the effect of over-regulation as having "a unique and disproportionate effect on small businesses," which resonated well among the audience of small, independent cable operators.

During his onstage discussion with ACA president and CEO Matt Polka, O'Rielly (making his first-ever appearance at an ACA Summit) invited cable operators to tell the Commission, "What can we change to make your life easier - things that don't cause other industry segments to have a heart attack."   

O'Rielly said his goal is "to reduce the economic cost [and] to modernize our rules."

"Hopefully in this Commission, things will improve,” he said, and he smiled benignly when Polka reminded the Commissioner that he's now in the new majority.

Comcast Business has formally introduced SmartOffice, a video surveillance, monitoring and storage product for small- and mid-sized businesses.

Per the SmartOffice web site, the offering starts at $29.95 per month and includes one indoor camera, with more cameras provided for an additional monthly charge. Comcast has been asked for additional pricing details.

UPDATE: Comcast Business is charging $14.95 per month for additional indoor cameras, and an extra $19.95 per month for outdoor cameras that work with SmartOffice.

The debut of SmartOffice, which adds a new source of potential revenue for Comcast Business, comes about a week after details about the product first uncovered by Light Reading.

RELATED: Comcast Business Developing Video Surveillance, Storage Product

The service features “commercial-grade” 720p HD cameras (with 20x zoom, night vision and motion detection capabilities), the ability to securely store up to 30 days of video in the cloud (access to that footage can be provided to as many as four employees), and live and recorded access to video via a smartphone app or from a desktop browser.

“The growing trend for building ‘Smart Cities’ will lead to the rise of connected devices across the private and public sectors, and our SmartOffice solution can provide video surveillance to organizations that want to monitor their locations more closely,” Christian Nascimento, executive director of premise services at Comcast Business. “This new service aligns well with our high-capacity internet and Ethernet offerings and allow SMBs to use the cloud for easy access to, and sharing of, video footage, which can benefit a business in many ways.”

Documentation about SmartOffice shows that Comcast is developed the product in tandem with Genetec.

Comcast Business appears to be nearing the launch of a new video surveillance and storage product that could open up a new revenue stream for an already growing division of the company.

First spotted by Light Reading, the coming SmartOffice offering is being billed as a 24/7 video monitoring and recording system that can be managed online by Comcast Business’s customers.

Comcast declined to comment on SmartOffice, but materials about the service that have shown up on the Web use the tagline, “Stay Informed. Stay In Control.”

Comcast Business hasn’t announced a launch date or a full set of pricing options, but a demo and luncheon about SmartOffice in Detroit being promoted on Facebook and located by LR notes that businesses can get it starting for $140 per month, a price that includes four cameras and 30 days of cloud video storage.

The user manual for SmartOffice shows how users would access the service through a subscriber portal, with access to a Video Tab that allows customers to view multiple live video feeds on one screen, and switch between live and recorded video playback. Users can also bookmark saved video clips, and a “Vault Tab” is where stored video clips can be stored until they are manually deleted.  SmartOffice will also support a mobile app.

The documentation also indicates that Comcast is developing SmartOffice in partnership with Genetec, a company that specializes in IP video surveillance technologies and systems.

The addition of a video surveillance product could help to stoke an already growing part of Comcast. Its business services unit ended 2016 approaching a $6 billion revenue run rate. Comcast Business is continues to chase after larger commercial customers, but the bulk of the unit’s revenue still comes way of small businesses.

RELATED: Comcast Business Bows New Unit Targeting Fortune 1000

As a further recognition that X1 has played a major role in putting Comcast's video sub growth back in the black last year, the operator has plans to broaden and deepen the penetration of the platform significantly in 2017

RELATED: Comcast Adds 161K Video Subs in 2016

About 48% of Comcast’s 22.5 million video subs were on X1 at the end of 2016, up from 30% a year earlier, as the MSO deployed X1 to 936,000 net new and existing customers in Q4.

The aim is to drive that penetration percentage into the low 60s in 2017.

“We’ll keep driving X1 into our base and add features along the way to help further differentiate  the experience as well as adding to our x1 licensing partners,” Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chairman and CEO, said on Thursday’s earnings call.

Cox Communications, Shaw Communications and, most recently, Rogers Communications have licensed X1, and Cox and Shaw have already deployed next-gen video products based on Comcast’s platform.

RELATED: Shaw Launches ‘BlueSky TV,’ Powered by Comcast’s X1 Platform

Neil Smit, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, said he sees X1 penetration ultimately reaching 75% to 80% while noting positive metrics from X1 subs,  including a 3x DVR uptake versus subs on Comcast’s legacy platform, a 2x increase in PPV, the utilization of more outlets and increased VOD viewing.

“In every way you study this thing, it looks like a…game-changing product,” Roberts said.

Integration of X1 with OTT services like Netflix also came up on the call.

“We want to offer more and complementary content to make the viewing experience as rich and easy to access as possible, so we’ll continue to seek other partners and integrate them into the overall experience,” Smit said.

Comcast is in the process of integrating Sling TV on X1. Smit reiterated that the focus of that tie-in is Sling TV’s multicultural content and services.

Smit also expanded on Comcast’s anticipated role and participation in the coming deployment of 5G, an ultra low-latency, high capacity technology that’s expected to help some ISPs deliver gigabit-class speeds wirelessly.

Comcast, which plans to launch a mobile product by mid-year and offer it as part of service bundles, is conducting some 5G trials today, Smit said.

“5G is an exciting evolution in the business,” he said, noting that it will need economical space, power and backhaul, and that Comcast has 150,000 miles of fiber deployed across 650,000 miles of total plant to contribute to the cause. “We think we're well positioned to participate in the 5G rollout no matter how it happen as a result of having all of those assets in place already." 

Comcast also remains bullish about the growth potential of business services.

The MSO pulled in $1.44 billion in revenues from business services in Q4, establishing an annual revenue run rate of $5.76 billion.

Smit said he expects that part of the business to produce double-digit revenue growth for years as Comcast continues to capture share.

He said Comcast had 20% share in small-business in its footprint, and 15% in the mid-sized business sector, and that large enterprise represents a $13 billion to $15 billion opportunity in its markets. 

Comcast is expanding the utilization of its DOCSIS 3.1 rollout by introducing two new broadband tiers for small- and mid-sized businesses that deliver 500 Mbps or up to 1 Gbps (downstream) initially to customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville.

Using DOCSIS 3.1, a next-gen platform for widely deployed hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network, Comcast Business is introducing two new broadband services – “Business Internet 1 Gig” and “Business Internet 500." 

Update: The downstream speeds of those tiers are being paired with upstream speeds that max out at 35 Mbps. CableLabs is working on an extention to DOCSIS 3.1, called Full Duplex, that will enable symmetrical speeds. 

RELATED: 'Full Duplex' DOCSIS Speeds Ahead 

Comcast is rolling out the new tiers as business services continue to be a key growth driver for the company. Comcast pulled in about $1.4 billion in business services revenue in Q3 2016, up 15.5%. The company is scheduled to report Q4 results on Thursday (Jan. 26).

Pricing for those tiers vary based on customer needs, and include features that are tailored for business customers, including guaranteed up time, night and weekend installation windows, no data plans, static IP addresses, and 24/7 support from business service experts, but general pricing starts at $499 per month for the 1-Gig service, and $399 for the 500 Mbps offering.

On the residential side, Comcast has been selling a D3.1-based 1-Gig service for a base price of $139.95 per month, and has also been testing a promotional base price of $70 per month when customers agree to a three-year service contract.

Cable-Tec Expo: DOCSIS 3.1 Working As Advertised

Comcast has already identified several markets that are in line for DOCSIS 3.1 deployments in the early part of 2017, including Miami, Denver, San Francisco, and Kansas City, among others.

RELATED: Comcast Sets DOCSIS 3.1 Expansion

Comcast Business, which also offers 1-Gig and multi-gigabit speeds using fiber, noted today that it plans to launch its DOCSIS 3.1-based Business Internet 1 Gig and Business Internet 500 offerings in the majority of its service areas throughout 2017 and into 2018.

“High-capacity, high-performance internet can be a difference-maker for businesses that want to leverage software-as-a-service applications to improve their operations or enhance the customer experience by offering in-store Wi-Fi or a robust e-commerce site,” Kevin O’Toole, senior vice president of product management at Comcast Business, said in a statement. “DOCSIS 3.1 business internet service offers a new and easy plug-and-play option for accessing gigabit speeds in any business environment – whether that is a large distributed enterprise across a wide geographic area or a small business with one or a few locations.”

Alaska-based service operator GCI said it is expanding its reach into the Pacific Northwest  via the acquisition of Northpoint Consulting, a network consulting firm based in Seattle.

GCI said the deal will enable it to broaden the national reach of its offerings, including unified communication, network security and cloud integration.

Examples of Northpoint Consulting customers and clients include the Seattle Seahawks,  Cisco Systems, and Getty Images.  GCI has also been a customer.

Tied to the deal, Northpoint president and founder Nathan Clark will become vice president of business development in the Pacific Northwest for GCI. Northpoint's staff of 23 will join GCI.

"We are thrilled to welcome Northpoint's team of network experts to the GCI family," said Martin Cary, senior vice president and general manager of GCI Business.

"As we expand our footprint in the Pacific Northwest and across the nation, GCI will continue to recruit expert staff and invest in the latest technology in order to deliver the best possible solutions to our customers,” Martin Cary, SVP and GM of GCI Business, said in a statement.

"GCI has been delivering services for more than 35 years and we're excited for Northpoint customers to be able to benefit from GCI's extensive portfolio," Clark added. "We recognize the value of offering managed services to our customers to free up valuable resources and reduce costs."

Windstream Holdings said Monday it had pulled the trigger on a $1.1 billion all-stock deal, including debt, to merge with fellow ISP EarthLink, reasoning that the deal will give Windstream a national footprint spanning about 145,000 fiber route miles, including “strategic routes” in the Southeast and Northeast U.S

Under the deal, EarthLink shareholders will receive 0.818 shares of Windstream common stock for each EarthLink share owned, representing a 13% premium to the average exchange ratio of 0.721x over the month ended Nov. 3, 2016, the most recent unaffected trading day. Windstream expects to issue approximately 93 million shares of stock valued at approximately $673 million, based on the company’s closing stock price on Nov. 4, 2016. Windstream shareholders will own about 51% of the combined company, with EarthLink shareholders owning the rest.

They expect the deal to create annual operating and capital expenditure synergies of more than $125 million.

They expect the deal to close in the first half of 2017, with Tony Thomas to serve as president and chief executive officer of the combined company and Bob Gunderman serving as chief financial officer of the combined company.

The combined company will keep the Windstream name and remain headquartered in Little Rock, Ark.

EarthLink, a pioneering ISP going back to when dial-up was the primary connection point, had sought a wholesaling condition on the Comcast-NBCU merger. It was also a strong advocate for multi-ISP conditions  to be placed on the 2000 AOL-Time Warner merger.

EarthLink is the latest ISP of yore to get acquired. Verizon snapped up AOL last year. In 2001, SBC (now part of AT&T) acquired Prodigy.  AOL acquired CompuServe in 1997.

The bulk of EarthLink’s revenues now comes from the enterprise/mid-market and small business sectors. EarthLink posted Q3 revenues of 235.1 million, down 13.2% year-over-year.  About $47.8 million of the Q3 total came from consumer services.

EarthLink ended Q3 with about 427,000 “narrowband” subscribers, and 244,000 broadband subs. 

Cox Communications has long been the gold standard in the cable industry, reaching the top of the list of cable operators in J.D. Power customer-satisfaction surveys and as one of the first pioneering operators to introduce telephone services way back in 1997. Lately, though, Atlanta-based Cox has been more known as a target. Altice NV chairman Patrick Drahi made his desire for the family-owned cable operator well-known as he made plays for, first, Time Warner Cable and then Suddenlink Communications and Cablevision Systems. Cox made it clear it had no intention of selling, and it maintains that position today.

And why would Cox sell out? As one of the last remaining independently owned cable operators — controlled by the Cox family, it is part of Cox Enterprises and is the largest private telecom company in the U.S. — the MSO has thrived. Like its larger peers, Cox has reduced video customer losses over the past several years while consistently growing broadband subscribers: it has about 6 million residential and commercial customers. Commercial revenue is expected to reach $2 billion this year and president Patrick Esser believes $3 billion in annual sales in that category is not that far away.

Cox also continues to innovate. It has licensed Comcast’s X1 operating platform for a new version of its multiscreen Contour offering; launched a mobile-first, app-based offering aimed at millennials called Contour Flex Watch; and is trialing a Spanish-language video streaming service called Glosi. Efforts to convert Cox’s network to all-digital are expected to be completed this year and other projects, like an in-home gateway, Internet protocol- based voice service and DOCSIS 3.1-based Gigabit broadband are all on the way.

Esser says execution, not consolidation, drives Cox and its management team, led by chairman James Kennedy and himself; executive vice president and chief operating officer Jill Campbell; EVP and chief financial officer Mark Bowser; EVP and chief technology officer Kevin Hart; EVP and chief marketing and sales officer Mark Greatrex; and EVP of product development and management Steve Necessary. For stability and innovation amid the industry’s constant change, Cox Communications has earned the title of 2016 Multichannel News Distributor of the Year. Esser — the top executive at Cox since 2006 and an employee since signing on as director of programming in Hampton Roads, Va., in 1979 — spoke with senior finance editor Mike Farrell about Cox’s present and future positioning in the multichannel universe.

Related: Selfless Service After Louisiana Flood [subscription required]

MCN:Cox is one of the last sizable, independent family-owned cable operators left. Given how consolidation continues to transform the landscape, how do you maintain that independence in the new order?

Patrick Esser: When you look at the industry in general, we all talk about how much change we’re going through. I would probably use the word metamorphosis. I think it’s more of a step change than just change. You have to think about things differently today than you did five to 10 years ago, especially as it relates to the products we put out for our customers to use; the capabilities we have, what it is going to take to compete and grow.

The three things that I think about a lot are the pace of change that’s going on with technology; the pace of change going on with consumer behavior; and what’s going on with competition and consumers’ ability to choose. Those are all moving at such a rapid pace. That is really driving a lot of the change that is going on in the business.

That being said, our networks are faster today and smarter than they’ve ever been. The devices we’re putting in businesses and people’s homes and the experience they’re having is faster and smarter. The bottom line is this: Our customers are just more connected. You have to think about the business as a connected world.

Our mantra, which comes from the employees that deal with customers every day, is we connect people to the things in life they care most about. That drives a lot of our decision-making.

We have a very highly capable network. From the 1996 Telecom Act to this year, we’ve invested over $25 billion. We continue to spend at least 15% of our revenue every year on capital, most of that going into our network, to keep our network highly competitive and capable of delivering today’s products and services and ones we want to put into the market in the future. We’re very committed to our local communities. We believe this is a local business and so do our employees. That’s part of what makes Cox, Cox.

Our products are competitive. But you have to have those moments where you’re willing to pioneer some things, even before the product is fully baked, to keep yourself on your toes, leaning forward and moving at the kind of pace that the market is and your customers are.

But even talking about those things, in reference to Cox, I think it’s our people. I think it’s the values we all live by and our people’s commitment to take care of our customers that makes us such a special company. And none of this would be possible without the leadership and tone that is set by the Cox family. They are incredible stewards of this asset and their values have transcended generations for over 100 years, and they care about the businesses they own, the markets they do business in and the people that come to work here every day. So our values are very intact, and it gives us the ability to talk to [the family] and think long-term about the business.

MCN:You mentioned consolidation. Obviously, that has been a big issue over the past few years. Does having 4 million video customers have the same clout it did five years ago? How do you feel about scale?

PE: Scale really occurs at two levels: nationally and locally. Locally, we believe we have the scale in the markets we do business in. We can do the marketing and sales and service activities we need to do to compete and we’re willing to make investments in those markets. There are a couple of places where scale plays out, and that is in innovative platforms and services that you want to roll out and also with the supply chain work going on — in other words, the money you spend to buy products and services. We have a pretty close handle on what the difference is because of our size, in terms of what we pay for some of the products and services and content. That is always a tradeoff that we make.

To be able to 100% control a company — and don’t forget, no individual, no family is making a bigger bet on this industry than the Cox family — all of this company is owned by them and it is a large bet for them. So they think about it that way. The second thing about the markets you do business in, we can do the marketing, we can do the sales, we can do the execution we want to, but we have to be cognizant of the platforms. That’s why things like working with Comcast on the X1 platform as the foundational platform for our video product called Contour, was an important move for us to get the kind of innovation scale we wanted to get. The industry’s broadband platform is DOCSIS, we all share that same platform. That was important to us.

Our Homelife product [uses] a company called iControl; we all use that same platform. So it is important that you don’t do one-offs to the point that you lose innovation; that you are still swimming in the same direction that our peers are swimming. And that gives us some of the scale that we need.

MCN:But Cox really hasn’t been in the deal market since TCA Cable [in 1999].

PE: We’ve been doing deals. We’ve just been investing in other spaces, especially adjacent spaces.

MCN:In keeping with the industry trend of pigeonholing its participants, are you a buyer? A seller? Neither? Both?

PE: We have this total flexibility as a private company, and our balance sheet is in really good shape, to do whatever we want to do, whether it be in adjacent spaces or core business. But execution is where most of our time has been focused. And because we take such a long-term view on the business, we can be patient or we can [make moves] depending on the moment in time. I have had numerous conversations with Cox Enterprises and members of the Cox family that are very, very happy with this asset and where they stand today. We are right in the middle of our budgeting and long-range planning and we like what our plan says to us. There’s not been any lack of commitment by the Cox family or Cox Enterprises in the business. I don’t see any of that changing.

MCN:You touched on being a private company. It would seem that would be a big advantage because there isn’t a large group of outsiders pressuring the company to do something it might not want to do.

PE: I agree. You nailed it. That’s it. We have a different set of criteria and decision makers who plan to be here and to pass this on to their children or the next generation, so they think about it very differently.

MCN:Cable video has picked up, broadband is going strong and others are focusing on mobile and online. Where do you see the growth happening in this business going forward?

PE: There is more video being consumed today than ever in the history of the country. Now, it’s being done on different platforms, it’s been aggregated in different ways and we have to adapt to meet the customer where they want to consume it. But we are still bullish about the video business. The broadband business has been an incredible business for us, all the way back to 1997 when we launched it. We continue to add a lot of broadband customers every year. I think they buy the service because the product continues to perform extremely well, we continue to invest heavily in that space, we continue to raise our speeds [and] we offer customers a lot of choice. I think we have a lot of wind left in our sails with broadband.

Business services have done very well for us. We will hit $2 billion in annualized revenue for business services this year. Compare that to the size we are, that’s pretty impressive. Per business passed, per homes passed, per [fiber] mile laid, whatever term you want to use, we have performed extremely well in that space. I’m going to share a secret with you. We had a 10-year plan to build that business to $2 billion and this was the year we thought we could do it in, and we’re right on schedule. I think it could be a $3 billion business for us. There are some things we have to do and some investments we have to make in adjacent spaces to make it a $3 billion business, but with the team we have and the relationships we have in our communities and the customers we serve, they all want us to do more and more and more. Working with the other cable operators in the industry, we have just scratched the surface on enterprise revenue. Most of the stuff we’re doing is local and regional. But there are solutions and products that we can bring to the market that can make large nationwide, larger footprint customers very happy. I think that is the next phase of growth.

MCN:Have you made a lot of inroads into large enterprise business?

PE: Large regionals and small local business is our bread and butter today. Large regionals are city government, schools, military and banking. Those are large regionals we do very well with. I consider the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority a large regional; they’ve been a very big customer for us. At the same time if you drive down the street, you can see business after business after business with 20 or fewer employees. We have done extremely well in that space. Our market share is getting to pretty impressive levels. It’s just a matter of the industry getting to a place where we have a standardized set of products that we can go to large enterprise customers [with], and serve them nationwide working together as an industry.

MCN:Cox has also made some moves with new products like a Spanish-language OTT service Glosi. What was the strategy behind that?

PE: We just saw a consumer group that was being underserved. Sometimes you have to say, “OK, if I have a large customer opportunity, and this is the content that they want and they want it both on their TV and their screen of choice, how do I get the content? How do I put it on their screen of choice? How do I make it a reasonable value play?” Remember, I said you can’t be afraid to pioneer. You have to go to the market and trial it and see what the customers tell you. We’re in a trial now with that product.

MCN:You have another relatively new offering, the app-delivered Flex Watch product. Is that your answer to younger viewers who want mobility and skinny bundles?

PE: It is mobile-first. We recognize the point that they may or may not consider the television their primary screen. That’s not my decision, that’s the consumer’s decision, it’s just accepting that. What is the aggregated set of content they want and what price point makes sense for them and allows me flexibility to do that? Whether they’re younger or it just meets their lifestyle — because not everybody’s 25 years old — it gives us another product that fits a lifestyle, and we’re trying to be responsive to the market within the constructs of what our content agreements allow us to do.

MCN:Everyone seems to be struggling to figure out a mobile strategy and video seems to be driving that. People are watching a lot of content on their phone.

PE: They’re watching a lot of content period. A lot of journalists have written that video is dead; they’re missing the point. It’s just showing up in more places than it ever has before. So content aggregators like ourselves have to adjust and adapt to what consumers are telling us. At the same time, we have the majority of our customers who love the video experience on a large screen TV in their front room. And we cannot leave them behind in terms of investments, and we’re not.

MCN:What about the next level — having an OTT product that goes outside the footprint? Has that tempted you at all?

PE: It hasn’t because it doesn’t fit with our core competency. That core competency of the local market has been really important to us. That competency of leveraging the network we’ve built; our service and billing organizations are all built around geographic regions. So no, we have no intention to work in that space.

MCN:Not even down the road, as the market becomes more saturated?

PE: Who knows in five years, but right now there is no energy being spent on that.

MCN:You were the first U.S. company to license Comcast’s X1 platform. What made you decide to go that route, rather than develop one yourself?

PE: Comcast has done a wonderful job developing that product. We got an opportunity to look into their road map and out further and there was a situation where they were willing to license it and its capabilities to us for about what we were spending a year on our video products. They’ve been a wonderful partner, by the way. They have something like 1,500 engineers working on this every day. I will never have 1,500 engineers working on it, but it creates a national platform that is extremely powerful and everything they said in their road map, they have done it.

We looked at the market; we looked at all of our options, even what we were doing ourselves, and we couldn’t think of a better scenario than the X1 platform. It made sense to us financially; it gave us, we thought, the most competitive product in the market and a product that continues to evolve. Fortunately they’ve got about 25 million reasons to get it right. They’re as motivated to get it right and keep it innovative as anybody, and we benefit by that.

MCN:How long before this is in everyone’s hands? Is it available in all of your markets now?

PE: Any customer in any Cox market can order the product. We rolled it out across the entire company. Over the next few years, it will become a larger and larger part of our user interface. It’s not going to be a forced migration.

MCN:Cox has always been willing to take risks and to admit when it was time to cut its losses and move on. You did that with the cellular business a few years ago, perhaps a good idea at the time but when the market shifted you pulled the plug. What have you learned from those mistakes?

PE: You have to have an environment that allows people to take risks; otherwise you will not be able to keep up with the pace of change. We’re right now in the process of wrapping up going all-digital, we’re driving the next generation of DOCSIS into the market — 3.1 will be here before you know it. We’re building fiber deeper and deeper. We’re building an all-IP voice platform. We have the next-generation gateway for the home [and] we have a whole new way to think about the WiFi experience in the home.

You’ve got to constantly be pushing yourself to move. You may never be able to move faster than the market, but you have to try to keep a cadence that reflects the market. If not, competitors will show up and steal valuable customers from you, and that shouldn’t happen. You have to be willing to make the investments, you’ve got to be willing to take some chances, you have to have extremely competent leaders and people working in the company — which we do — that you bet on and that you believe in. And you’ve got to be willing, if you’re wrong, to change.

In other words, we’re going to do some things, we’re going to trial some things, we’re going to launch some things. And if we find out six months later or a year later it wasn’t exactly what we thought it would be, then stop. Nobody’s ego is involved here: stop, learn and move on. I don’t care what Cox business you’re in, whether it’s the automotive division, the media division or the telecom division, I think that entrepreneurial spirit lives in all of them.

Wave Broadband said it has raised an additional $125 million to continue an ambitious fiber buildout geared toward serving a growing number of enterprise customers on the West Coast, and is adding two new companies to the fold to help grow its commercial services business.

Wave, based in Kirkland, Wash., initially raised $130 million to start its fiber buildout last year.

The more recent financing, a $125 million add-on to the existing first-lien term loan, will fund the continued project buildout in Washington, Oregon and California, as well as future acquisitions.

Wave currently has more than 1,000 fiber construction projects underway to serve business and residential customers on the West Coast and its commercial services business is its fastest growing segment, growing at a 25% clip last year. According to Wave, new construction is adding more than 100 route miles of fiber each month to its existing network of about 5,500 route miles, serving markets from the San Francisco Bay area north to the Canadian border.

Separately from the financing, Wave said it has purchased two fiber businesses – Newport, Ore.-based CoastCom, and Vancouver, Wash.-based SawNet -- to expand its business offerings. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.  

CoastCom owns more than 250 miles of fiber in Oregon, while SawNet owns more than 100 fiber miles from Portland/Vancouver through the Columbia River Gorge. Wave will add those assets to its fiber network, along with CoastCom’s more than 150 business customers.  

“This financing enables Wave to accelerate the expansion our fiber network to meet the strong demand we are seeing from commercial customers for access to our network’s fast and reliable connections, backed by exceptional customer service,” Wave CEO Steve Weed said in a statement. “We are also very pleased to add CoastCom and SawNet to Wave, as their local fiber networks and business customers complement what we’re already building in Oregon and southern Washington.”

Wave has been placing a greater emphasis on its commercial broadband business for years – Weed said in an interview that it is on a path for business services to represent about half of total revenue. It recently launched Wave G Business service – a 1 Gigabit per second high-speed data offering – to provide symmetrical Gigabit Internet connectivity to companies often found on the ground floors of Wave G-serviced residential apartment buildings.

Comcast Business said it has been named the WiFi vendor of choice for NRG Stadium, the 72,000-seat home to the Houston Texans, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and  Super Bowl LI.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but Comcast Business is putting in a 10 Gbps Ethernet Dedicated Internet line to connect to the stadium’s local area network to the public Internet and underpin the venue’s free WiFi service. Comcast will also put in a branded Xfinity X1 “wall” inside the stadium that hosts multiple large screens that show other games, concert footage and event information.

RELATED: Comcast Business Links Up With Atlanta Braves

"We are pleased to partner with Comcast Business to provide free Wi-Fi for our fans to use on gameday at NRG Stadium" said Jamey Rootes, president of the Houston Texans, in a statement. "Fast, reliable Wi-Fi service is the foundation that will allow us to enhance the experience that our fans have on gameday through social media, live video, replays and other features available through the Texans app.”

“We are most excited to bring this great amenity to guests of NRG Stadium without using taxpayer dollars,” added said Kevin Hoffman, executive director of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation. "We were able to work with the NFL, the Super Bowl Host Committee and other stakeholders to create a unique funding partnership to get this accomplished.”

Supporting sporting and event venues has become a growing segment for Comcast Business, which generated $1.36 billion in revenues in Q2 2016, up from $1.16 billion in the year-ago period.

RELATED: Comcast Upgrades Join Denver Broncos' Playbook

The unit of Comcast also has similar deals with the Atlanta Braves’ Sun Trust Park, the Denver Broncos’ Sports Authority Field, the Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park, the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Field and the Oakland A's Oakland Coliseum. 

Comcast Business said it has struck a new multi-site enterprise network deal with the Atlanta Braves for the team’s front offices at SunTrust Park and for minor league team operations in Georgia and  Virginia.

The agreement follows a multi-year tech and real estate partnership announced in March 2015 between the Braves and Comcast.

The latest deal calls for Comcast Business to connect the team with two 100 Gbps Ethernet services at the new Braves ballpark, set for completion in 2017, and more than 700  WiFi access points for the mixed-use facility. Comcast Business will also connect the team’s minor league teams in Rome and Gwinnett County, Ga.; and Danville, Va., as well as a sales location at the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta. Comcast will also supply phone service for the Braves’ SunTrust Park offices.

Comcast is also on tap to provide video, voice and high-speed Internet connectivity throughout the 60-acre project, which includes the new ballpark, retail shops, restaurants, an office tower, hotel, an entertainment venue and residential units.

Comcast will also become the Braves’ “signature tenant” for a multi-story office building within the development that will house more than 1,000 Comcast Employees.

The deal expands on Comcast Business’ sports-facing agreements to equip LP Field, the home of the Tennessee Titans, with 1-Gig connectivity and on-site WiFi hotpots, and pacts with the San Francisco 49ers,Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars, Boston Celtics, Oakland A’s, Boston Red Sox,  Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Hawks. 

Comcast Business pulled in $1.36 billion in revenues in Q2 2016, up from $1.16 billion in the year-ago period. 

Focusing its aim at a potentially lucrative revenue stream, Google Fiber this week introduced three broadband service plans that are tailored for small business customers.

In the early phases of the launch, eligible small businesses in Charlotte can sign up for one of the following plans, which are all data cap-free and support up to 13 static IPs:

-Fiber Business 1000: Symmetrical 1000 Mbps for $250 per month

-Fiber Business 250: Symmetrical 25 Mbps for $100 per month

-Fiber Business 100: Symmetrical 100 Mbps for $70 per month

Those services will eventually become available in all Google Fiber markets.

The debut of the new set of business-focused services marks a transition from an “Early Access” program for small businesses that Google Fiber introduced in 2014.

Eligible small businesses in Kansas City; Provo, Utah; and Nashville, Tenn., have until July 31 to sign up under the Early Access program, and, starting August 1, will have the option to pick from one of the new plans or keep their Early Access plan and pricing for a full year, John Shriver-Blake, product manager at Google Fiber, explained in this blog post.

He added that Google Fiber’s small business service offering comes with 24/7 support.

The new trio of business services enter play a few weeks after Google Fiber struck a deal to acquire Webpass, an ISP that will assist Google Fiber’s expansion into commercial locations and apartment buildings in major markets such as San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Miami, Chicago, and Boston.

Looking to drive X1 into new markets, Comcast is preparing to trial the cloud-driven video service with hotels in the Philadelphia area later this summer.

Comcast is currently in talks with several hotels in the area about the trial, but has not announced timing for a commercial rollout.

Comcast Business, the commercial services unit of Comcast, announced the new offering, called X1 for Business, at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC), which is taking place this week in New Orleans.

Comcast Business, which is demonstrating it at the show, said the X1 for hotels and hospitality venues will support several that are part of the platform’s core residential offering including a cloud UI, voice remote, the ability to pause and rewind live TV, access to free VOD titles, the X1 Sports app, a “talking guide” for people with visual disabilities, and the option to view the guide and channel listings in English or Spanish.

X1 for Business should help Comcast to expand the reach of the platform, which has also been tailored for colleges and universities (Xfinity on Campus) and for apartments and other types of multiple dwelling units (Xfinity Communities).

About 35% of Comcast’s s 22.4 million video subs are now on X1. The MSO, which is deploying about 40,000 X1 boxes per day, is aiming to raise that to about 50% by the end of this year.

X1 will also open up a new revenue stream for Comcast Business, which pulled down $1.31 billion in revenues in Q1 2016, establishing an annual run-rate of $5.2 billion.

In the hotel/hospitality sector, Comcast will be competing with other service providers, including Dish Network and DirecTV, which scored a deal with Hilton Hotels in 2014, as well as market specialists such as Sonify Solutions, which this week announced several enhancements, including “SoniCast,” a platform that supports the Google Chromecast streaming adapter, and a mobile API for hotel partner apps, and a new interactive TV system that provides more details about the property.

Also this week, GuestTek announced a partnership that integrates its OneView Managed Video Platform with Bulk TV, which supports DirecTV and provides service to 400,000 guest rooms. GuestTek noted that its MVP platform complies with Marriott’s Guestroom Entertainment services platform.

"X1 has transformed entertainment for our residential customers, and starting our X1 B2B trials with hotels is a natural extension as this industry focuses on providing guests with all of the comforts from home, including a great TV watching experience," Denice Hasty, SVP, marketing and product management for Comcast Business, said in a statement. "We are just getting started, but we are excited about the prospects for X1 expansion."

"Comcast is poised to disrupt the $3 billion United States business TV market with X1 for Business," added Greg Ireland, multiscreen video analyst at IDC. "Products and solutions that have generated excellent results on the residential side can help businesses, particularly in the hospitality industry, gain an edge in attracting new and returning consumers."

Cox Business has added a new mobile wrinkle to its hosted voice platform, IP Centrex, by enabling voice, instant messaging and other communications features on smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.

Cox Business introduced its hosted IP Centrex product in mid-2013, with an initial focus on IP phones tied to the individual business. This enhancement, enabled using the BroadSoft UC-One platform, factors in mobility, offering in-office connectivity while Cox's business customers are on the go.

The initial launch will feature several applications for smartphones, tablets and desktops – outbound calling, click-to-dial, instant messaging, and Outlook integration (Windows only). Two-way calling is initially available on the mobile smartphone app.  Cox Business also has plans to tablet and desktop apps that provide outbound calling, and the addition of collaboration features for the initial batch of apps.

Cox Business started to introduce the new mobile features last December, and it’s now available in all of the MSO’s markets, according to Jeff Adelmann, vice president of product for Cox Business.

He noted that Cox Business sells IP Centrex to its full range of customers, which include small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as some small enterprise customers. The new mobile component is a premium addition to the existing “seat.”

Cox Business, Adelmann said, also plans to extend these capabilities to its line-based products for customers that don’t require an end-to-end hosted platform.

Cox Business is adding the new mobile elements as commercial services remain a key growth engine for the cable industry. Cox is tracking toward $2 billion in annual business services revenues.

“We expanded the IP Centrex solution to enable greater productivity for our customers through a new level of connectivity. Whether via Android or iOS device, our customers will remain connected regardless of location,” Steve Rowley, senior vice president of Cox Business, said in a statement.  “In today’s competitive landscape, businesses must be equipped with advanced technology to capture new customers on demand and respond to their needs immediately - these enhancements to IP Centrex deliver on that need.”    

Lightpath, a unit of Cablevision Systems focused on Ethernet-based business services, said it has established direct international access to its New York metro area fiber network.

Through a connection to New Jersey Fiber Exchange’s neutral cable landing station meet-me room in Wall, N.J.,  Lightpath’s enterprise customers can now tap into high bandwidth services for connectivity to key international destinations, the company said.

The New Jersey Fiber Exchange 64,800-square-foot facility is set to go live in September 2016, at which time Lightpath’s services will be available via the new connection.

As its customers increasingly seek the fast connectivity to key international hotspots, Lightpath said the new connection meets this need by bypassing carrier hotels and legacy backhaul solutions.

“As our customers’ businesses expand globally, they want to continue to use the Lightpath service that they know and trust,” Dave Pistacchio, president of Lightpath, said in a statement. . “Following our connection to the NJFX facility, we’re able to expand the universe of customers we can serve, helping them develop secure, reliable and high-speed connectivity to key media and financial destinations throughout the world.”

Lightpath’s fiber network in the NY metro covers more than 7,000 lit locations in the region.  Lightpath parent Cablevision is in the process of being acquired by Altice.

Tapping into social media has become a key promotional component for TV programmers, and it is also becoming increasingly important for small businesses, Time Warner Cable Business Class found in recent survey of 800 consumers.

Managing a social media presence has become a critical part of the game plan, with one in five saying they won’t frequent a small business that doesn’t respond to comments on review sites such as Yelp, TWCBC found it the study -- Small Business Technology Impact Study – released in tandem with National Small Business Week.

Additionally, the study found that 30% might not buy from a company that doesn’t have a social media presence. Notably, 46% of women surveyed said that posting on Facebook regularly is an effective way of attracting or keeping them as a customer, versus 32% of men who were surveyed.

“Building that strong relationship with your customers starts before they enter your place of business and continues after they leave, and you’re losing customers every day that you don’t build an online presence for your business,” Maureen Link, TWCBC’s group vice president, small business, said, in a statement.

But if you’re a small business that’s deciding how to hang a digital shingle -- whether that’s erecting a Facebook page or creating a website, select the latter. Up to half of consumers surveyed (depending on the vertical) said they might not buy a company without a website, TWCBC found in the survey, which was offered through Harte Hanks.

And developing mobile options, including billing, offers a way to connect with millennials. About 27% in the 18-34 year old group preferred that a small business can take and process payments via a mobile device, compared to 19% of 35-54 year-olds, and 14% of consumers who are 55 or older.

Signaling its launch of commercial data center and managed IT services, Midco said it has struck a deal to acquire Dataware LLC.

Financial terms were not announced, but the deal includes two data centers located in Sioux Falls and Yankton, S.D., Midco said, noting that it gives the operator the infrastructure required to deliver business-class data center and managed services across the Upper Midwest.

Midco said it will continue to serve Dataware customers as it expands its service line to include additional managed business IT services. Midco noted that it’s assessing opportunities to expand the data center strategy into other cities.

“The combination of the data center environments on top of our Northern Plains Network is an advantage for Midco Business, but even more so for our customers,” Scott Smidt, who leads the data center strategy and team at Midco and serves as its VP of business engineering and operations, said in a statement. “Businesses already benefit from the reliability, redundancy and capacity of our wholly owned and operated fiber-optic network. Soon, they can use that network to access their secure data housed in a Midco facility,” adds Smidt.

“As we look to the future, we may examine opportunities in additional Midco markets presently underserved by large data centers, such as Fargo and Grand Forks, and then move our focus to other key Midco markets,” Steve Grosser, EVP for Midco, added.

Midco Business, the commercial services arm of the operator, delivers service via an 8,400-mile fiber-optic network that connects to more than 40 regional and national fiber networks. Midco said its network is certified for MEF 2.0 and is scalable to 8 terabits per second.

Comcast Business said it now provides enterprise customers direct links to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

That linkage, via AWS Direct Connect, gives Comcast Business customers private network connectivity to the AWS Cloud services that perform critical processes like production compute and storage, backup, dev/test, collaboration and billing or website hosting, Comcast Business said.

Comcast currently provides business customers with up to 10 Gbps of dedicated Ethernet connectivity to AWS.

"Connecting to a leading provider of cloud services is an advanced IT asset for our enterprise customers, and as CIOs and IT leaders look to expand their use of AWS, our integration with AWS Direct Connect will give them a new Ethernet network option to connect dispersed office locations and data centers," said Denice Hasty, senior vice president of Marketing and Product Management for Comcast Business, in a statement. "A key part of our cloud and data center initiative is to give businesses direct access to cloud providers for increased options and flexibility as they customize their hybrid network strategies."

As a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), Comcast Business also can connect more than 1 million Ethernet-enabled buildings in the Comcast network to additional AWS services like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Solution (Amazon S3) and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC).

Comcast Business, which recently launched a unit focused on large enterprise business customers in the Fortune 1000, pulled in $1.25 billion in revenues in Q4 2015, up from $1.05 billion the year-ago quarter.  Comcast ended 2015 as the nation’s fifth-largest U.S. provider of carrier Ethernet services, according to Vertical Systems Group. AT&T was tops, followed by Level 3, Verizon, CenturyLink and Time Warner Cable.

Keeping itself focused on a key growth opportunity for delivering services tailored for healthcare organizations  and telemedicine providers,  the cable industry will be well represented at the annual HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, taking place this week in Las Vegas.

Four MSOs will be participating in this year’s show – Comcast Business (booth 7830), Cox Business (booth 4400/T2113), Charter’s Spectrum Business unit (booth 12340), and Time Warner Cable Business Class. Notably, Cox recently acquired Trapollo, a provider of managed services to the health care industry that enables the deployment of telehealth and remote health monitoring.

Additionally, CTAM will be located in the Innovations booth within the Interoperability Showcase area at the Las Vegas event, where it will provide additional information on cable’s healthcare partnerships.

“The typical size for a Picture Archiving and Communications Systems image set — such as an xray — used by radiologists in everyday evaluations is 500 Megabytes,” said Steve Rowley, SVP of Cox Business, in a statement. “The size of these commonly-used imaging files tells us clearly that the healthcare industry has significant needs as it embarks on a massive migration to electronic health records and networked data exchange. We will work in lock step with our customers to ensure our solutions meet their ever-growing data demands.”

"Supporting healthcare technology will require a strong network backbone to ensure peak performance,” added Alexandra Sewell, VP of Enterprise Marketing, Comcast Business. “This is the foundation to building an effective healthcare IT delivery chain, which ultimately provides quality patient care – something that we’re all striving to do.”

 “As the healthcare industry is focused on providing the best possible care for patients and their families, the cable industry is supporting this mission with technologies, such as  advanced network and cloud solutions, that work together to help healthcare organizations stay connected, secure and compliant,” said Jeff Greenberg, Time Warner Cable Group Vice President Marketing, Mid-Market and Channels.

“Complexity in the health IT space is increasing and is likely to continue to grow in the foreseeable future," said Cynthia Carpenter, VP of Product Management, Spectrum Business. "With our high-capacity, fiber-rich networks for connecting providers, patients and facilities across the healthcare ecosystem, the cable industry is providing simple, reliable services that are easy to deploy and scale as healthcare customer needs evolve.”

AT&T said it will invest nearly $10 billion this year on its integrated solutions for businesses around the world.

But even with that big number factored in, AT&T continues to expect its overall capital investment for 2016 to be about $22 billion.

AT&T’s new, business services-facing, targeted investment plan includes the integration of more than 6,000 kilometers of Mexico fiber currently supporting the wireless operations into the AT&T wireline network. It will also include the expansion of the company’s software platform that lets customers rapidly change or add network services, a broadening of dedicated Internet of Things networks in Europe and the U.S. for things such as connected cars, fleets, and utility meters.

“Business is moving faster than ever and companies around the world need to be agile to quickly adapt to changing markets,” Ralph de la Vega, vice chairman of AT&T and CEO of the company’s Business Solutions & International unit, said in a statement. “Our industry-leading network and innovative platforms give them the tools to do just that — where they want it and how they want it—around the globe.”

CenturyLink said it has lit up a fiber-based symmetrical 1 Gbps offering for multi-tenant unit office building in the Houston area, a launch that brings more commercial services competition to Comcast, the city's incumbent cable operator.

CenturyLink  said platform will offer a range of IP-based services, including multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), optical wave service, Ethernet and VoIP. More than 300 data centers and thousands of business locations are directly connected to CenturyLink’s 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and its 300,000-route-mile international transport network, the company said.

“Access to super-fast, reliable business broadband service is a determining factor for many companies when leasing office space,” said Laura Bacon Morgan, Houston MTU fiber program manager at CenturyLink, said in a statement. “CenturyLink consults with office building landlords and leasing agents who want to attract sophisticated, technology-driven business tenants. A business can quickly activate Internet service that meets or exceeds its connectivity requirements in a building that is pre-lit with CenturyLink fiber.”

Houston is the latest city to join CenturyLink’s 1-gig mix. Last May, the company announced it had made 1 Gbps FTTP services available to about 500,000 U.S. business locations.

Carving out another revenue stream for its commercial service arm, Comcast Business has formally introduced WiFi Pro, a cloud-controlled WiFi platform for small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprise branch locations.

Comcast noted that WiFi Pro, a managed solution provided by the MSO,  uses two commercial  WiFi networks – a private network for employees and a guest network for visitors and patrons. The new offering can be managed on mobile devices  using a mobile app or an online portal, allowing partners to check network activity, configure controls and allocate bandwidth.  The platform also features a customizable splash-page designer

“WiFi Pro offers simple management and features to SMBs and distributed enterprises that were previously only available to headquarters and other large office locations, enabling a better employee experience and customer engagement,” said John Guillaume, vice president of Product Management at Comcast Business, in a statement. “he additional marketing features allow SMBs and enterprise branches to create a more personalized experience through Wi-Fi to help drive customer retention and revenue growth.”

This video below offers more detail on Comcast's new business offering.

WiFi Pro  is expected to drive more revenue for a growth-focused area of the MSO. Comcast pulled in business services revenues of $1.2 billion in the category in Q3 2015, up 19.5% year-over-year, putting it on an annual run rate approaching $5 billion.

Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC) said it has secured a link to the Equinix Cloud Exchange, an interconnection platform that enables businesses to select and connect to a range of public cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace.

The agreement helps TWCBC to build on its own NaviSite cloud platform. TWC acquired NaviSite in 2011 for $230 million.  Ethernet connectivity to the Equinix Cloud Exchange is delivered via TWCBC’s network. Connections to the exchange are available from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps.

“TWCBC already offers secure and reliable Ethernet connectivity to our NaviSite cloud platform. With the announcement today, we can now meet connectivity requirements for customers who use other cloud service providers to meet their IT needs,” Satya Parimi, GVP, product management for TWCBC, said in a statement.

Time Warner Cable Business Services more than 700,000 business customers. TWC pulled in $836 million in business services revenues in Q3 2015, up from $724 million in the year-ago period. 

Comcast Business said it now reaches 700 more local businesses in the Twin Cities following a $3.1 million investment that helped it to expand the reach of its fiber network backbone there. 

The investment extends that network, which provides up to 10 Gbps, to businesses along Nicollet Mall, Eagan, Osseo, Chaska, Lake Elmo and Plymouth, the MSO said, noting that the expansion is hitting retail, commercial and industrial projects in those areas.

Comcast estimates that it about 90,000 businesses in the Twin  Cities are now passed by its fiber and  HFC network.

“As Twin Cities companies increasingly compete with the rest of the world, it’s critical they have access to technology that will help them run their business and serve their customers as efficiently and effectively as possible,” said Kalyn Hove, vice president, Comcast Business - Twin Cities, in a statement.   “Comcast Business products are designed to provide the kind of flexibility and scalability to help businesses of all sizes adapt to the rapidly changing world of commerce, backed by dependable reliability.” 

In the second quarter, business services revenues at Comcast rose 20.4%, to $1.2 billion. Comcast said it has achieved a penetrate rate of 25% for small businesses, and is approaching 10% for mid-sized businesses. 

Comcast recently launched new division that targets Fortune 1000 companies.

Charter Communications named Time Warner Cable commercial services chief Phil Meeks as executive vice president and president of Business Enterprise Services, effective after its planned merger with the cable company is completed.

Meeks is currently EVP and chief operating officer of Business Services at TWC. An industry veteran – he joined TWC in 2013 after about five years as senior vice president of Cox Business – Meeks will oversee all aspects of Charter’s business enterprise unit.

Charter agreed in May to purchase TWC in a deal valued at about $78.7 billion. That transaction, currently winding through the regulatory approval process, is expected to close by the end of the year.

“Phil’s knowledge and understanding of the commercial telecommunications industry is all encompassing,” Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said in a statement.  “With a proven track record of success, Phil’s leadership will be instrumental to the continued growth of our enterprise business.”

At TWC, Meeks leads its rapidly growing business services unit, serving over 650,000 business customers and accounting for over $3 billion in annualized revenue. At Cox Business he led 3,500 employees in making it the fastest growing business unit in the enterprise.

Meeks has a long history in the telecom business outside the cable industry as well, serving 20 years in various strategy, sales and account management roles during 20 years at MCI Telecommunications and starting  his career at AT&T Information Systems/Southern Bell in 1979.

In addition, Charter named former long-time ad sales executive  David Kline and former PepsiCo executive Paul Marchand as EVP and president of Media Sales and EVP of Human Resources, respectively.

Kline has spent more than 33 years in the ad business, most recently as president and chief operating officer at Visible World. Prior to Visible World, Kline served as chief operating officer of inertactive TV company Ensequence and had served for 14 years as president and chief operatig officer of Cablevision Media Sales.

“David is an industry veteran with over 30 years of knowledge and experience in his field,” Rutledge said in a statement.  “David’s strategic leadership will further elevate Charter’s position as an innovator in the advanced TV advertising space.”

Marchand is a 12-year veteran of PepsiCo, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Human Resources for the North America Beverages Field and Supply Chain organization. In addition to several other previous management roles at PepsiCo, Marchand also has held human resources positions at Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and the May Department Stores Co.

“Paul is a seasoned and strategic leader with over 20 years of experience in Human Resources,” Rutledge said in a statement.  “His proven ability to attract, develop and retain the very best talent will be a tremendous asset to Charter moving forward and I am pleased to welcome Paul to our executive team.”

All three executives will report directly to Rutledge and will be based at Charter’s Stamford, Conn., corporate headquarters.

Comcast Business is expanding its portfolio with Voice Mobility, a new type of phone line for small- and medium-sized businesses that features a mobile app that ensures that employees won't miss calls or messages when they’re on the go.

Comcast Business Voice Mobility, the MSO said, is designed for employees who need to work outside the office but need to stay connected to their business phone using a single phone number.

The new app bakes in features such as voicemail, Be Anywhere (receives calls on a mobile phone or another phone out of the office, Move Call (shift in-process calls between a mobile phone and the office phone); call transfers, mobile business contact lists, and a Do Not Disturb function that blocks incoming calls.

The debut of the app follows the biz unit’s 2013 launch of VoiceEdge, a cloud-based voice and unified communications platform.

“Comcast Business Voice Mobility provides an easy-to-use mobile app that enables our business customers to quickly check voicemails, make and receive calls, transfer calls and more,” John Guillaume, vice president of Product Management at Comcast Business, said in a statement. “Comcast delivers superior call quality to millions of small business owners over our owned and managed network, and this app extends our voice capabilities to employees on their iOS or Android mobile phones.”

In the second quarter, business services revenues at Comcast rose 20.4%, to $1.2 billion. Comcast said it has achieved a penetrate rate of 25% for small businesses, and is approaching 10% for mid-sized businesses. 

Comcast recently launched new division that targets Fortune 1000 companies.

Comcast Business, the commercial services arm of the cable giant, is going after large enterprises full bore, forming a new unit specifically targeting Fortune 1000 companies and forming agreements with cable companies across the country to provide managed services to big business customers with locations nationwide.

The new Enterprise Services unit, branded Managed Enterprise Solutions, will offer a full suite of managed enterprise products including broadband, Ethernet, voice, router, security business continuity and WiFi. To meet those goals, Comcast said it has purchased a managed service company and has signed network agreements with other cable operators to further support national accounts.

Headed by former SpaceNet Inc. CEO Glenn Katz, Comcast said the new unit has already signed large customers from several industries including financial services, banking, hospitality and retail.

“We’re committed to expanding and enhancing our offerings for businesses of all sizes, and having the expertise, tools and portfolio in place to deliver customized service packages to nationwide enterprises is a key part of our growth strategy,” said Comcast Business president Bill Stemper in a statement. “Large companies need a provider who can help them manage complex networks, develop business continuity plans and integrate cloud-based applications. Our entry into this segment of the market will introduce new innovation and choice.”

Business services have been the fastest growing segment for most cable operators and Comcast is no exception. According to Comcast, business services grew 22% in 2014 and has an annual revenue run-rate of more than $4.5 billion. But so far most of the revenue has come from small and medium sized business. With the creation of Managed Enterprise Services, Comcast can tackle larger enterprises with locations outside of Comcast’s cable footprint.

According to a recent report from IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based IT industry analyst firm, the U.S. market for managed services is expected to increase from $29 billion in 2014 to $52 billion in 2019.

"With its national network reach and end-to-end service delivery capabilities, Comcast is well positioned to serve the outsourced network management needs of large business that require increasing network capacity to serve expanding multi-site requirements," IDC research vice president Melanie Posey said in a statement.

While network agreements with cable operators like Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Cablevision Systems will help expand Comcast’s business services reach, the cable giant also recently purchased national technology deployment and managed services firm Contingent Network Services to help larger enterprises outsource their day-to-day network operations. Comcast purchased Contingent, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company but will continue to operate under its own brand name, in late August.

“Contingent’s mission is to provide clients with high-quality, cost-effective network and deployment services wherever and whenever needed for reliable communications across an enterprise, and we couldn’t be more excited for them to join our team,” Katz said in a statement. “By joining forces with Comcast Business, Contingent can further expand their reach and take advantage of Comcast’s extensive fiber and hybrid fiber coax network to give enterprises the optimal network experience to meet their business and technology requirements.”

Comcast Business said it has landed a deal to provide an Ethernet-powered upgrade for the Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel, a site that touts 1,919 guest rooms and 130,000 square feet of meeting space.

Via the upgrade, Hilton San Francisco Union Square is getting two Internet circuits of 500 Mbps two dedicated 1Gbps circuits, upgradable to 10Gbps, Comcast said.

The capacities were necessary, they said, to provide the bandwidth needed to support guests’ social activities including streaming video while “meeting industry standards to support up to 6,000 guests online at the same time.”

“One of the essential amenities we offer to our guests is Internet and our goal to support as many users with as much bandwidth at the highest speed possible at any given time is made possible by using Comcast Business’ Ethernet,” said Pejman Parvazi, Area Manager for Information Technology at Hilton Worldwide. “We have been impressed with Comcast’s ability to address our needs and provide the potential to grow while offering reliable support. It is important for us to deliver high quality amenities to our guests.”

“Reliable and efficient solutions are critical to the hotel industry in today’s digital environment,” added Ted Girdner, Vice President of Comcast Business for Comcast’s California Region. “Hilton San Francisco Union Square is providing access to information, and we’re pleased to provide a solution that enhances the hotel experience for all its guests.”

In the second quarter, business services revenues at Comcast rose 20.4%, to $1.2 billion. Comcast said it has achieved a penetrate rate of 25% for small businesses, and is approaching 10% for mid-sized businesses.