While the industry grapples with labor shortages for skilled fiber technicians as incumbents and competitors alike build out massive fiber networks, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson and Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries told the opening general session of the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo that the so-called “talent gap” is largely dependent on the projects at hand.

“There is so much activity going on all at once,” Watson told a Tuesday audience at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. “Every operator is dealing with not only a significant upgrade to the networks, all mapped out, anticipated to improve multiple assets of connectivity, but there are also new things like new passings. …There’s a bit of a crunch in terms of the sheer amount of people needed to pull all of this off.”

Also read: Home Networks Are the New Industry Battleground (Expo) 

Watson said providers that are changing their networks, or large components thereof, to virtualize and add capability need a different set of skills.

“It does require that people get trained up on how to do this,” Watson said. “Our people are adaptable. The front-line leadership is on their toes, working hard, and they’re dealing with all of these changes.”

At Liberty Global, which derives about half of its revenue from mobile, the needs are different. Fries said LGI isn’t having much trouble finding people with experience in 5G or other mobile tech, but he sees a gap in attracting people who can help the company move into new businesses.

“It’s the things we want to do,” Fries said. “We need more data experts, we’re finding it hard to find  people who can help us get us into new revenue streams.”

For most cable companies, 10G is one of those new products with the most potential, and it’s also one of the main themes of the Cable-Tec Expo. Fries said 10G is the technology he is most excited about because he’s already deploying it: Liberty Global has rolled out a 10G product in Switzerland for $50 per month.

Comcast hasn’t rolled out 10G yet, but earlier this month it launched a multi-year initiative to bring multi-gig internet to 34 cities by the end of 2025. Comcast intends to eventually put multi-gig service in front of 50 million homes and businesses.

“It really pieces together an efficient and effective network evolution for us,” Watson said.

Fries added that the European competitive landscape — he estimated that nearly 100% of Liberty Global’s markets will be overbuilt with fiber over the next three years by another company — makes the 10G evolution a necessity for him.

“It’s urgent for us,” Fries said. “It’s not a ‘nice to have’ — it’s life or death.”

Both Watson and Fries thanked the tech side of the business for keeping the networks running during the pandemic, a period that put an unprecedented strain on the infrastructure as usage ballooned as most of the country had to work and learn from home.

While both Fries and Watson praised cable for stepping up to the challenge, Fries said the goodwill associated with cable broadband during the pandemic is also an opportunity the industry shouldn’t let pass.

“Let’s bottle that magic,” Fries said. “During that pandemic, not only did we rise to the occasion and our networks did everything that we hoped they would do, we built up a lot better relationship with our consumers, and the businesses we serve, hospitals and regulators and government. That’s a special thing we have to hold onto. We’ve got to build on that. We can’t just take that for granted.” ■

Liberty Global said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its UPC Poland operation to mobile operator Play for $1.8 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

Play is part of the iliad Group, which also operates mobile networks in France (under the Free trade name) and Italy (under the iliad name), and has about 15 million subscribers in Poland. Iliad S.A. is the parent of iliad Group. SAa. the mobile subsidiary of Polish telecom company Iliad S.A.  

UPC Poland has about 1.5 million subscribers and passes 3.7 million homes in the country. Liberty said the sale price represents about 9 times UPC Poland’s 2021 estimated adjusted EBITDA.  

“This transaction highlights, yet again, the significant value of fiber-rich HFC networks in Europe, as well as the substantial synergy benefits inherent in fixed-mobile convergence mergers,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a press release. “We have been operating in Poland for over 20 years and are proud of our contributions to the country’s growing digital economy and the impact that we’ve made in the communities where we operate.”

Liberty Global said the cash proceeds from the deal — about $600 million — will boost its already hefty cash balance of $4.1 billion.

“As ever, we remain squarely focused on value creation and are pleased with the premium valuation we received for our Polish business, providing a strong return for Liberty Global shareholders,” Fries continued.

Proceeds from the sale, net debt repayment, will be used for general corporate purposes, including reinvestment into its business and for share repurchases. Liberty Global also has agreed to provide Play with certain transitional services — mainly network and information technology functions — for a period of up to four years.

Credit Suisse acted as financial advisor to Liberty Global for the transaction.

Liberty Global said it has received final regulatory approval for the 50-50 joint venture to combine its Virgin Media unit with Telefonica’s O2 business from the U.K . Competition & Markets Authority, clearing the path for the June 1 completion of the deal.

CMA approval was the final regulatory hurdle for the deal to be completed. Liberty Global and Spain’s Telefonica first proposed the transaction, which would combine Virgin Media’s broadband internet business with Telefonica’s mobile operations, last May, creating an entity valued at about $38 billion. The combined companies are expected to create a stronger competitor in the U.K. fixed and mobile markets, supporting the expansion of Virgin Media’s giga-ready network and O2’s 5G mobile deployment. The joint venture is expected to deliver about £6.2 billion in synergies and have combined revenue of about £11 billion.

Also Read: Liberty Global Looking at Possible Mobile Deals in Ireland, Poland 

The two companies named Virgin Media CEO Lutz Schüler and O2 chief financial officer Patricia Cobian as CEO and CFO, respectively, of the combined company last month. 

In a joint statement, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries and Telefonica CEO José Maria Alvarez-Pallete called the deal “a watershed moment in the history of telecommunications in the UK as we are now cleared to bring real choice where it hasn’t existed before, while investing in fiber and 5G that the UK needs to thrive. We thank the CMA for conducting a thorough and efficient review. Lutz and Patricia are now set to take the reins and launch a national connectivity champion that will connect more people, ignite more businesses back to growth and power more communities for the greater good.”

Liberty Global, the Denver-based international cable company controlled by industry legend John Malone, said that it is interested in pursuing deals with mobile carriers in Ireland and Poland and hopes to have agreements in hand by the end of the year.

On its Q4 earnings call with analysts, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said pursuing such deals was “high on our list” of priorities.

Liberty already has about 1 million cable and 120,000 mobile subscribers in Ireland through its Virgin Media unit. In Poland, its UPC Poland operation has about 3.3 million video, internet and telephone customers and 62,700 mobile subscribers through an MVNO agreement.

Also Read: Cadent Teams with Liberty on Addressable in Europe

The Irish mobile market is dominated by three carriers -- Vodafone; Three Group, owned by international telecom conglomerate CK Hutchison; and Eir, owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel. In Poland, potential targets could include Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Play and Polkomtel. Liberty tried to expand its presence in Poland in 2018 with the purchase of Multimedia Polska for about $876 million, but abandoned that deal because of regulatory opposition and difficulties in coming to financial terms with the sellers. 

Fries added that Liberty Global has been aggressive in the M&A space, completing more than $80 billion worth of transactions in the past five years, that allowed the company to exit or enter markets, depending on its scale. Most recently, Liberty Global’s agreement to merge its Virgin Media business with Telefonica’s O2 in a joint venture valued at about $38 billion is scheduled to close in the summer pending regulatory approval. 

“I think the way we’ve done it depends on the market - we either exited, bought or merged, and we think in all cases we’ve done the right thing, so we now have the number one or two player in these markets and that gives the scale to be, I would say, opportunistic and creative," Fries said on the call. 

Ireland and Poland, where Fries said Liberty Global hasn’t had the same M&A activity, will be looked at closely, especially in the fixed mobile space. 

“The markets that we haven’t yet done anything in, Ireland and Poland for example, of course we’re going to continue to evaluate what the right long-term future for those markets is in terms of their strategic footprint and whether there’s a fixed mobile opportunity, so you should assume that that’s high on our list,” Fries said. “It would be surprising to me if we ended 2021 without continued transformation even in those two markets, whatever that might look like.”

In 2020, Liberty Global said revenue declined 1.5% to $12 billion and EBITDA fell 3.9% to $4.9 billion. In the UK and Ireland, where broadband customers increased by 100,000 for the year, revenue was flat at about $6.6 billion. 

Advanced TV company Cadent said it is expanding it is working with Liberty Global to extend its addressable advertising management platform in Europe.

Cadent and Liberty began working together in 2019 in the U.K. It recently expanded its automated addressable linear and VOD advertising platform into Ireland and now plans to move into Liberty’s European markets starting in 2021.

“As the leading independent advanced TV platform, Cadent is focused on bringing proven, scalable and sophisticated data and advertising solutions to platform operators, broadcasters and advertisers,” said Keith Kryszczun, senior VP of global platform sales at Cadent. “This expansion reaffirms our commitment to innovation through our technology partnership with Liberty Global, which has brought demonstrable success to the TV industry and our respective partners over the years.”

Cadent’s platform lets advertisers combine the scale and brand-building engagement of live and on-demand television, with the targeting and attribution capabilities of digital advertising.

“This integration delivers another big part of Liberty Global’s continued commitment to linear and on demand addressable advertising to support our content partners and provide a better viewing experience for our customers,” said Pieter Vervoort, VP product, entertainment, Liberty Global. “Cadent is providing a sophisticated solution that shows a clear way forward for TV platforms and broadcasters.”

Cadent’s technology enables advertisers to target households by using anonymized data in a GDPR-compliant manner. As cookies are phased out, Cadent said its technology lets advertisers reach strategic audiences in a safe environment.

Liberty Global has introduced in Poland a new proprietary pay TV set-top that it says reduces energy use by 77% over its previous generation set-tops.

The London-based telecom also said that 35% less plastic is being used to manufacture the 4K Mini TV Box, which was designed in-house by Liberty and made by CommScope.

Liberty Global said the device is initially being deployed to its UPC Poland customers. It will be expanded to other Liberty customers in Europe “in due course,” the cable operator added. 

Of course, the pay TV business has been moving away from full-featured, DVR-centric, power-hungry set-tops for several years. So Liberty Global wants to exploit this natural migration away from devices that use as much energy in a year as a refrigerator for some good green-energy PR? Why not?

The 4K Mini TV Box supports Dolby audio and connects to its IP-based video sources via WiFi or wired Ethernet cable. It can be powered by a display’s USB input, negating the need to connect the box close to a power outlet. 

The device is controlled by a Bluetooth-enabled voice remote. 

“At UPC Poland, customer satisfaction is paramount to us, so we are committed to delivering outstanding customer care combined with best in-class connectivity and entertainment, anytime and anywhere,” Robert Redeleanu, CEO Liberty Global, Eastern Europe, said in a statement. “I am thrilled that Poland is the first country within Liberty Global to launch the new 4K Mini TV Box, and confident it will help us further enhance our unique customer experience. As we bring new innovations to our millions of customers and new premises, we are well on top of the convergence game in the market.”

Liberty Global said it has created a fund to help its employees and their families who have been significantly impacted by COVID-19, the Liberty Global Response Fund.

Liberty Global said the program will be funded initially by senior executives and members of its board of directors who will donate $2 million out of their remaining 2020 salaries and directors fees. The amount includes $1 million from CEO Mike Fries. Those initially contributing to the fund include 15 senior executives working at its central offices and operating companies in the US, UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Eastern Europe.

Liberty Global has agreed to match all contributions for the fund, bringing the total to $4 million. All of Liberty Global’s 27,000 employees will be eligible to apply confidentially for assistance through an online portal.

“At Liberty Global, we are a family first,” Fries said in a press release. “On a day-to-day basis we are doing everything we can to protect the safety and well being of our employees, but sometimes that is not enough. Those with elderly parents, partners out of work, or other challenges need additional help to get through this crisis. We want them to know that we are here for them in their time of need. I am hopeful that the Liberty Global Response Fund continues to grow in size and will serve as a model for future support inside our company.”

Liberty Global is one of the largest pay TV service providers in Europe via its Virgin Media, Telenet, UPC and Vodafone/Ziggo units. Those companies continue to deliver critical broadband, voice and television services throughout its operating areas and have initiated support programs to help customers during the COVID-19 pandemic such as:

Virgin Media

• Offering unlimited minutes and a 10GB data boost to mobile customers in the UK at no extra cost

• Providing enhanced connectivity to critical public services such as NHS hospitals

• Delivering extra TV channels for free, including kids, drama and documentary programming

Telenet

• Working with care homes in Belgium to connect elderly people in with their families through robotic virtual communication tools

• Providing its TV product Yelo TV to over 1,000 hospitals, nursing homes and other care institutions free of charge, plus WiFi vouchers to underprivileged students

• Donating laptops to school children from disadvantaged communities

• Offering double data to mobile customers until the end of the lockdown period in Belgium

Virgin Media Ireland

• Providing free public WiFi hotspots in communities across Ireland

• Offering free anti cyber-attack technology to hospitals

UPC Switzerland

• Providing free speed upgrades to 100 Mbps to all customers

• Upgrading all B2B customers to its top broadband package and providing security packages for free

UPC Poland

• Launching programs to provide free broadband for teachers

• Running free coding lessons for children

UPC Slovakia

• Upgrading all customers to 150 Mbps, at no extra cost

VodafoneZiggo

• Launching a special telephone helpdesk for the elderly

• Helping educational institutions with remote teaching

• Introduced new online portal for businesses and their employees working from home

Liberty Global isn’t just a Plume investor. It’s a customer.

The operator has announced the expansion of its relationship with WiFi tech vendor Plume, with plans to deploy the company’s smart home solutions across its European footprint.

In fact, that deployment already started last year with Virgin Media in the UK.

Liberty Global gateways across the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland and Poland will now include Plume’s open-sourced WiFi management software, which allow parents to set digital controls on their kids, monitoring device usage, pausing internet connectivity and generally having the ability to shut all things digital down as needed.

The so-called Connect App will be available to Liberty Global service subscribers at no additional cost.

Additionally, Liberty Global will start rolling out Plume hardware, including its mesh WiFi boosters (Liberty has branded these as “Connect Pods”), as well as the vendor’s open-source WiFi optimization platform, OpenSync.

Liberty Global and Comcast are among Plume’s backers.

And as you might have guessed, Liberty Global CTO Enrique Rodriguez is pretty excited about the partnership. He wrote it about it in a pre-packaged press release quote: “Combining Plume with Liberty Global’s gigabit network capabilities releases the full potential of broadband speeds and spreads them throughout the home, adapting to the unique environment each connection operates in,” Rodriguez stated. "The expanded partnership with Plume builds on our commitment to creating the next-generation of broadband by working with partners to enhance our network capability and go beyond speed-leadership. This strongly positions Liberty Global to offer a highly reliable internet residential services in the home that enables smart homes, online gaming and wide variety of use cases which rely on wireless connectivity.”

Liberty Global isn’t just a Plume investor. It’s a customer.

The operator has announced the expansion of its relationship with WiFi tech vendor Plume, with plans to deploy the company’s smart home solutions across its European footprint. 

In fact, that deployment already started last year with Virgin Media in the UK. 

Liberty Global gateways across the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland and Poland will now include Plume’s open-sourced WiFi management software, which allow parents to set digital controls on their kids, monitoring device usage, pausing internet connectivity and generally having the ability to shut all things digital down as needed. 

The so-called Connect App will be available to Liberty Global service subscribers at no additional cost. 

Additionally, Liberty Global will start rolling out Plume hardware, including its mesh WiFi boosters (Liberty has branded these as “Connect Pods”), as well as the vendor’s open-source WiFi optimization platform, OpenSync.

Liberty Global and Comcast are among Plume’s backers. 

And as you might have guessed, Liberty Global CTO Enrique Rodriguez is pretty excited about the partnership. He wrote it about it in a pre-packaged press release quote: “Combining Plume with Liberty Global’s gigabit network capabilities releases the full potential of broadband speeds and spreads them throughout the home, adapting to the unique environment each connection operates in,” Rodriguez stated. "The expanded partnership with Plume builds on our commitment to creating the next-generation of broadband by working with partners to enhance our network capability and go beyond speed-leadership. This strongly positions Liberty Global to offer a highly reliable internet residential services in the home that enables smart homes, online gaming and wide variety of use cases which rely on wireless connectivity.”

DENVER -- With the pay TV eco-system losing around 1.4 million customers in the first quarter, per estimates, the smart money wouldn’t seem to be on the bundle coalescing anew.

But that was the very idea put forth by a couple of pay TV industry pundits at a video trade show in Denver this week.

“The return of the big bundle—that’s where we’re headed,” declared Scott Ehrlich, VP of emerging platform Content, Sinclair Broadcast Group, speaking on a panel Tuesday. “Everything that gets disaggregated gets re-aggregated.

According to fellow panelist Gary Schanman, senior VP of products for Charter Communications, many customers are coming to the realization that they can’t beat the value of his company’s managed network video services on price, now that many virtual MVPDs have upped their monthly fees.

“We still think we have an advantage,” Schanman said.

Meanwhile, the panelists said that media companies—now charged with distributing, marketing and doing pretty much everything else needed to get their shows seen in direct-to-consumer models—might soon miss the ease of the pay TV bundle.

“It’s really hard. You’re going to see a lot of guys try to get into [direct-to-consumer], blow through their libraries, and then blow through their budgets,” said Bob Greene, managing director of business development for Liberty Global.

“You’re going to see them return,” he added.

“How much money do you save wholesaling through a company that provides you with delivery, marketing and customer service?” said Ehrlich. 

Indeed, at the Pay TV Show, a recurrent theme has been that the rumor of the bundle's demise is overblown. 

Also speaking at the Pay TV Show, Wolfe Research analyst Marci Ryvicker said that cord cutting will eventually "even out," with around 70 million users remaining in the linear ecosystem. 

"I think the bundle is going to stick around for a while. People will start to come back," added Samantha Cooper, executive VP of distribution and development for Viacom, speaking on a Wednesday morning panel. 

Liberty Global said Tuesday that it has reached a deal with Amazon Prime Video to make the streaming service available to about 4 million Virgin Media television customers in the United Kingdom.

Virgin will be the first of Liberty Global’s European operations to integrate the Amazon Prime Video app with its Ultra HD V6 set-top box, beginning in the summer.

“This partnership with Amazon reinforces our track record of teaming with the best to give our customers unbeatable content,” Virgin Media chief operating officer Lutz Schüler said in a press release. “Virgin Media customers will soon be able to seamlessly search for and watch incredible Amazon Prime programming directly from their V6 box in the highest possible quality. With thousands of box sets, movies, exclusive and original content, as well as 20 live Premier League games airing later this year, Virgin Media customers will have even more of the TV they love in one place all powered by our ultrafast connectivity.”

With the launch, Virgin Media’s UK customers will get access to original programming like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and The Grand Tour, Premier League football coverage from Prime Video as well as Virgin Media’s extensive offering of broadcast and on demand programming across its multi-device TV service. Virgin Media customers will also have access to a range of Ultra High Definition (UHD) and HDR TV shows and movies.

“We’re excited to partner with Amazon to deliver its highly-popular content, including Amazon Originals and Exclusives, directly to our consumers,” Liberty Global EVP and chief technology officer Enrique Rodriguez said in a press release. “We know our customers want to see their favorite shows and programming on their big screen at home, and our partnership with streaming services like Amazon continues to make that happen.”

Comcast, Liberty Global and Bell Canada are supporting a new open source software initiative announced earlier this week by Wi-Fi technology vendor Plume.

At the Broadband World Forum in Berlin, Plume jointly announced, along with Samsung, that it was rendering open-source the Plume Middle Layer software it uses for gateways, modems, routers, access points, extenders, set-top boxes, IoT hubs, smart speaker and other Wi-Fi-connected devices.

The software will now be called OpenSync.

Plume says the OpenSync framework is “compatible with and leverages other open source initiatives and industry alliances,” including Reference Design Kit, the open source set-top and gateway software stack backed by Comcast, Liberty Global and eight other cable operators.

"For Liberty Global, a critical element of exploiting our broadband capabilities and delivering a superior connectivity experience to our customers is to ensure that we can continuously optimize Wi-Fi performance within a customer's home,” said Dan Hennessy, European CTO of Liberty Global, in a statement. “It is also clear to us that in creating those capabilities, we need to intelligently optimize performance across homes in close proximity to each another, which is common in our footprint. This is why we've already used elements of the OpenSync framework to optimize Wi-Fi in millions of homes and look forward to investigating ways in which the initiative might be applied to other use cases that may benefit our customers.”

‘"We've realized tremendous value from the RDK software stack in our advanced gateways," added Fraser Stirling, senior vpDigital Home, Devices & AI at Comcast. "Plume's PML is already integrated with RDK and deployed within our footprint, and we look forward to incorporating additional elements of OpenSync in the near future. The ability to deploy OpenSync atop the open-source RDK software further demonstrates the power and versatility of our approach. With more than 40 million RDK devices deployed globally, the RDK community is increasingly focused on new innovation for gateways and in-home mesh networking.”

ATLANTA - Setting the table for a Cable-Tec Expo panel discussion on the state of the cable industry’s Reference Design Kit (RDK) open source software initiate five years after launch, moderator Leslie Ellis noted a few fast facts about the year 2013.

Read More: Cable-Tec Expo 2018

The term “selfie” hit the Zeitgeist that year. Edward Snowden disclosed secret CIA documents. Oh, and …

It was at that point that former Comcast executive Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management, and the man who has overseen the joint initiative since it was kicked off by Comcast, Liberty Global and the erstwhile Time Warner Cable, put his own thoughts into Ellis’ exercise in in time perspective.

“Five years ago, if you said you were going to put an application layer on top of broadband, they would have told you to leave the room,” Heeb said.

Indeed, the open source development paradigm wasn’t popular—or even accepted—in the cable industry when the RDK initiative was originally conceived. But at the time, operators needed to try something to get more nimble as more agile over-the-top ecosystems began purging their subscriber ranks.

By having one centralized repository of software code, operators and their key vendor partners quickly realized significant software development time savings for video set-tops. They could create one user interface that would work across numerous set-tops from multiple vendors. The time it took for system on a chip (SoC) integration got cut in half. In short, re-invention of the wheel stopped occurring in the cable industry, at least for the video piece.

Today, Heeb said, more than 350 companies use RDK—not just the operators represented on Wednesday’s panel, which included Comcast, Liberty and Cox, but major hardware vendors including Intel, Broadcom, Technicolor and Humax, just to name a few.

Heeb said that there are more than 4 million transactions a month at RDK’s central repository for RDK code.

Related: RDK Partners With Metrological for Easier OTT App Integration

The software stack is standard on all video set-top boxes deployed by Comcast, Liberty, Cox and other cable companies around the world. And RDK recently extended its video capabilities, working with European software company Metrological to design an open source means for operators to integrate popular OTT services like Netflix into their user interfaces.

“Roku has Netflix and Hulu, and so do we,” said Bill Warga, VP of technology for Liberty Global.

The ‘B’ is for broadband

For his part, Warga never had doubts RDK would catch on. “I did think that open source would take off in cable—we needed a solution like this.” He noted RDK’s use in the development of Liberty’s voice remote. With Comcast already having laid down so much of the open source road work in development of its own X1 Voice Remote, Liberty was able to instead concentrate on other challenges—such as figuring out multiple Swedish dialects—and as a result, it vastly reduced the time to market for the voice control feature.

But Warga admitted that he never foresaw RDK’s current trajectory, which is moving into broadband services.

Sketching out the new domain of RDK, Heeb said the standard is now a “whole-home open source software platform for video and broadband devices. It goes across all devices an operator has in a home—from QAM set-tops to gateways to mesh extenders and even cameras.”

Earlier this month, Istanbul-based technology vendor AirTies said it will debut a version of its mesh WiFi software for broadband devices running RDK, beginning in the first quarter of next year.

And earlier this week, German smart home technology vendor Plume announced that it has open sourced its previously proprietary middleware, which is available to operators across residential gateways, modems, routers, access points, extenders, set-top boxes, IoT hubs, smart speakers and other devices. Plume said its open-source framework, which it calls OpenSync, is compatible with, and leverages, RDK.

Ed Shrum, VP of product development and management of devices and networking for Cox, said RDK will soon be deployed in every piece of residential CPE.

One of RDK’s biggest selling points, according to Heeb, is its ability to offer operators control of device data. Cox, Shrum explained, recently took advantage of that capability on its RDK-enabled gateways to diagnose an SSID issue. “We had the data needed solve the problem at our finger tips,” he said. Prior to RDK, Shrum added, Cox would have had to get the gateway vendor to write and push out a special piece of engineering code.

Certainly, as Wednesday’s morning panel showed, RDK’s coalition is a pretty happy one, with Comcast senior VP of devices and advanced systems declaring that his team uses RDK “every day, day and night” to create a better customer experience.

But there is at least a little discord. There’s disagreement, for example, on how much integration of FAANG companies to allow. Heeb conceded to MCN that he’s been reassuring RDK’s operator stakeholders at SCTE that bringing in popular devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home Assistant into the ecosystem will be accretive, and not a threat.

After all, he noted, there was a time, when companies like Comcast and Liberty wouldn’t think of integrating Netflix into their video systems.

Of course, that was so five years ago. 

Skittishness over the fed’s plan to tighten monetary policy and sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its lowest point since February, sliding more than 800 points on Oct. 10 and taking media and tech shares along for the ride.

The Dow ended Oct., 10 at 25,598.74, down 831.83 points or about 3.15%.

Tech stocks took the hardest hits, with Netflix down 8.3% ($29.82 each) to $325.89 per share, Amazon down 6.2% ($115.05 each) to $1,755.25 per share and Google falling 5.1% ($57.60 each) to $1,081.22 per share.

The flight from growth stocks like technology was spurred in part by moves by the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy, according to the Wall Street Journal. But the paper said a slowdown in home and auto sales and worsening trade tensions between the U.S. and China also were factors.

On the media side, distribution stocks fell in the 3%-4% range, with Liberty Global (down 4.5%), Charter (down 3.9%) Comcast (down 3.3%) and Altice USA (down 3.3%) basically in the same boat.

For programmers, the pain was a bit less, but not much. Discovery Inc. fared the best, down just 1% for the day (30 cents each) to $32.06 per share, with the rest of the sector down between 2% (21st Century Fox, down 1.9% to $44.62) and 3%(The Walt Disney Co., down 3.4% to $112.86) for the day.

AT&T, which partially lifted the veil on another over-the-top video offering Wednesday, fell 2% to $32.85 per share and Verizon was down 1.2% (66 cents) to $54.33. Satellite TV service provider Dish Network fell 3.3% ($1.12 each) to $33.05 

Looking to spark customer growth in sluggish regions including The Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium, Liberty Global has announced the deployment of its next-generation video platform, Horizon 4.

The platform combines linear TV with cloud DVR, VOD, voice remote capabilities and integrated OTT apps, including Netflix and YouTube. And it’s already battle-tested, with Liberty deploying it across around 2 million homes in the UK, where it has been combined with Arris set-tops and TiVo software and marketed under the “V6’ brand. Liberty Media reported an uptick of 45,000 TV customers across Virgin Media system in the second quarter.

But company CEO Mike Fries conceded that it faces “a pretty tough competitive environment” in places like Switzerland, where Liberty lost 54,000 customers in Q2, more than half of them in video. 

Related: Virgin Media Accelerates Rollout of TiVo-Powered V6 Box

Liberty, which announced the deployment at its “Tech Summit,” an event held within in conjunction with the IBC Show in Amsterdam, has also conducted tests of the platform in 10,000 homes across multiple Euro systems.

The platform uses the Reference Design Kit, an open-source software for set-tops that has been jointly developed by Liberty, Comcast and Charter Communications.

Liberty said the hardware and user interfaces of the Horizon 4 product suite were developed in-house by teams based at Liberty Global’s tech campus in Schiphol-Rijk in The Netherlands, together with various teams in other countries and with external partners across Europe.

“Our teams develop a common set of products and services, which are then rolled out across our local operating companies,” said Enrique Rodriguez, the former TiVo CEO who is Liberty Global’s recently appointed exec VP and CTO, in a statement. “This allows us to achieve significant scale and operating synergies.”

Added Mark Giesbers, Liberty Global’s VP Entertainment Products: “We want to add value to customers' lives and deliver on their expectation of 'any content, any device, anywhere, anytime'. That means aggregating all those TV channels, movies, series and apps into one easy-to-use, seamless viewing experience - and across multiple devices. The new Horizon 4 platform with its 4K set-top box, the remote with voice-control and the improved mobile app allows us to do exactly that.”

Recognizing that its pay TV constituents need a quick, effective way to provide customers with apps to popular over-the-top services, RDK Management has partnered with Metrological to create a two-pronged solution for integrating apps into RDK set-tops.

The announcement was made at the IBC Show in Amsterdam.

The first approach involves the new RDK App Framework, which allows service providers to create HTML5 and native applications on set-top boxes using the RDK Firebolt App SDK. The solution also provides on-boarding and life cycle management tools, and enables app portability across various set-top box models.

Driven by the RDK open source community, with key contributions from Metrological, RDK App Framework provides a complete development, build and test environment for web and native apps across RDK-based set-top boxes. Service providers now have a common technical framework to support native premium video apps, such as Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video, along with a wide-variety of niche or third-party HTML5 apps. Technical details are available at: https://wiki.rdkcentral.com/display/RDK/Firebolt.

Related: RDK Rides the Adoption Wave

For service providers seeking a more turnkey solution, Metrological’s App Store was named as the first RDK pre-integrated app store. Metrological’s App Store includes access to a library of of more than 300 apps. In addition, the App Store can be used to launch premium video apps such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video; local and regionalized apps; and all of the back-office tools needed to launch and manage the lifecycle of an app store. Content providers are able to reach over 40 million households across operator networks by uploading a single app onto the Metrological App Library.

“Our community also includes many operators who simply want their own white-labeled app store that works across RDK set-top boxes,” said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management, in a statement. “To support them, we’re pleased to name Metrological as the first RDK pre-integrated app store. It’s a clear testament to Metrological’s capabilities and ongoing contributions to the RDK community.”

RDK Management is an open source consortium, led by Comcast and Liberty Global, that manages the Reference Design Kit (RDK), an open source software platform for the connected home that standardizes core functions used in broadband devices, set-top boxes, and IoT solutions. It enables operators to manage their devices; control their business models; and customize their apps, UIs and data analytics to improve the customer experience and drive business results. The RDK community is comprised of more than 350 companies including: CPE manufacturers, SoC vendors, software developers, system integrators, and service providers.

RDK Management is moving fast to provide flexibility to pay TV operators, who have turned to solutions including Android TV to provide OTT apps to consumers.

Metrological enables operators to integrate premium OTT services and niche content into a single TV viewer experience. The Metrological Application Platform delivers a product suite for on-boarding and managing the lifecycle of web and native apps across set-top boxes and devices. Content providers are able to reach over 40 million households across operator networks by uploading a single app onto the Metrological App Library. Metrological works with cable and telecommunications companies such as KPN, Liberty Global, NOS, beIN, Tele Columbus, and Ooredoo. Founded in 2005, Metrological is based in The Netherlands with offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Arris is using the ongoing IBC Conference in Amsterdam to announce a flurry of deals with European operators.

In Germany, the vendor’s E6000 Gen 2 converged edge router is being used by Liberty Global to launch DOCSIS 3.1 services.

Sky Italia, meanwhile, will upgrade its consumer set-tops to hybrid models from Arris to comply with new European Commission energy efficiency regulations. The Arris devices also add HEVC encoding and 802.11ac Wi-Fi capabilities.

In Denmark, Stofa is using Arris vManager is it looks to accelerate its deployment of gigabit-speed services. The product allows Stofa to automate the provisioning of new nodes on its network, securing, managing and configuring the devices with accuracy and speed.

And in the UK, Freesat selected Arris to develop its first subscription-free, 4K HDR video devices. The deal represents the first line of Arris products for the UK retail channel. It will also result in the first KreaTV device for DVB-S2. The devices will be available in UK retail outlets in the beginning of next year.

"We're gaining steady momentum in the international market by responding quickly to the evolving needs of our service provider customers and consumers around the world," said Steve McCaffery, president and managing director, international business operations group for Arris, in a statement. "Our customers appreciate the diversity of solutions that we offer, and our latest design wins attest to our leadership and expertise in helping them deliver tomorrow's entertainment and broadband experiences."

IBC 2018 kicked off Thursday. 

SCTE announced Thursday six finalists for its Energy 2020 Adaptive Power Challenge, which seeks to reward technologists with the most innovative approaches to reducing network power consumption.

Technologies competing for two $10,000 prizes, as well as access to top cable operator decision makers:

• Alpha Technologies’ Enhanced Power Systems, which would enable operators to extend the amount of time a system will last on standby power—often even without generators—by leveraging additional run time available with nodes in a reduced-power setting. 

• Energy Cool’s Energy Cloud, which would utilize distributed UPS batteries to deliver demand response services to the power grid. Field tested in Denmark, the solution could aggregate a high number of individual sites, presenting and controlling them as one combined site to the power grid and allowing testing and monitoring of UPS batteries for high reliability. 

• SOFC.nl Holding B.V.’s Distributed Negative Emission SOFC Power, which would address demand by using small Solid Oxide Fuel Cells to directly supply additional power at the location where it is required. The solution would allow power resources to be kept to a minimum while enabling power to be delivered when necessary. 

• Technetix’s Intelligent Power System, which would reduce current through high-power amplifiers (hybrids), saving up to 10% power per device as well as reduced power losses within the cabling, enabling significant power savings without reducing service quality.

• Teleste’s Make Sense, offering three alternatives for operating existing amplifiers with lower bias current when lower network usage allows amps to run below their 1.2 GHz maximum capacity. Teleste maintains that in those situations, power can be reduced while keeping the quality of end-use experience intact. 

• Robert F. Cruickshank III’s Grid over Broadband: Jointly Optimizing Electric Power Generation and Residential Electrical Use, which supports the power grid by using the superior speed and two-way connectivity of the broadband network to enable the existing electrical grid to deliver and manage power in a more effective and efficient way, creating new business opportunities for cable operators while simultaneously addressing environmental concerns. 

The Adaptive Power Challenge was created by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), in partnership with Comcast and Liberty Global.

Winners will be announced at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta on Oct. 23. 

Liberty Global has named Severina Pascu CEO of UPC Switzerland, .

Pascu, who most recently was chief operating officer of UPC Switzerland, will assume her new role on Sept. 1. She succeeds Eric Tveter, who will become chairman of UPC Switzerland.

Pascu has been with Liberty Global for about 10 years, serving as chief financial officer for UPC Romania, CEO of UPC Romania, CEO of Liberty Global’s Eastern European platform and currently chief operating officer of UPC Switzerland. She will report jointly to Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, and Tveter and will join the executive leadership team. Tveter will also assume the role of CEO of the Eastern Europe operations.

“I am thrilled to have Severina take the helm in Switzerland,” Fries said in a statement. “She will lead a focused and dedicated operating team in the Swiss market building on a proven track record of delivering value to customers and shareowners at every stop in her 10-year career with us. At the same time, Eric will bring critical focus to our strategic planning and stakeholder relations in Switzerland, as well as continued leadership in our Eastern European operations as we prepare for the closing of the Vodafone transaction and evaluate our opportunities in this region.”

Liberty Global agreed to sell its UPC Austria operation to T-Mobile in December for about $2.2 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity to bring my energy and operating experience to our business in Switzerland,” Pascu said in a statement. “We have a long track record of innovation and growth in this market, and I’m certain we have the networks, products and passion to build on our leadership position in one of Europe’s most advanced digital markets.”

UPC Switzerland has about 2.6 million revenue generating units, including 1.17 million video, 738,000 Internet, 536,000 telephony and 122,000 mobile subscribers.

Related: Liberty Global to Sell Austrian Ops to T-Mobile 

“Severina has done an outstanding job in her prior roles in this region and in leading the Consumer Group in Switzerland,” Tveter said in a statement. “She will find new ways to drive growth in our Swiss business and I’m excited to continue our collaboration and partnership in our respective new leadership roles.”

Liberty Global said it has named former TiVo CEO Enrique Rodriguez executive vice president and chief technology officer, taking the spot left vacant after former CTO Balan Nair was promoted to head up Liberty Global’s Latin American operation in January. 

Rodriguez will start his new position in late July. Since January, Baptiest Coopmans has filled in as interim CTO. He will remain with the company as senior vice president, operations.

“Enrique is a seasoned executive who will hit the ground running on day one,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “In today's technology environment the best CTOs have worked across sectors, platforms and geographies. Enrique has C-level experience as an engineer, software developer and operator. …I'm particularly excited to tap into Enrique's knowledge of video products and platforms as we ramp up innovation in our TV business. He’s the right leader at the right time for Liberty Global.”

Rodriguez will lead Liberty Global’s Technology & Innovation (T&I) team of more than 7,500 employees, with an annual operating and capital budget of more than $5 billion.

Rodriguez was named CEO of TiVo in 2017. Prior to that, he has managed multi-billion dollar businesses for companies like AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco and Thomson, and has a long history in digital television as well as the European broadband sector.

As head of Microsoft's Connected TV business, he launched IPTV solutions for telecommunication companies around the world. At AT&T Rodriguez was responsible for the teams that developed and launched its OTT service, DirecTV Now.

Rodriguez will lead Liberty Global’s Technology & Innovation (T&I) team of more than 7,500 employees, with an annual operating and capital budget of more than $5 billion. The centralized technology function powers the IT, supply chain, product development and delivery and network platforms across Liberty's operating companies, working across countries and brands to help them succeed. Liberty Global’s standardized approach to its portfolio of software and hardware, which includes the Horizon TV platform and state-of-the-art Connect WiFi routers, plays a critical role in optimizing operational efficiency and delivering a consistently superior experience to Liberty's 22 million customers in Europe.

“This is an exciting time to join Liberty Global,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “It is one of the few companies in our sector with international scale, a long-term commitment to technology leadership, and a track record of consistent growth and value creation. Mike and his team are first class operators and I look forward to accelerating product innovation and building the network capacity that European consumers want and demand.”

The deal by John Malone’s Liberty Global to sell off some of its European assets to rival Vodafone is another step in the international cable giant’s strategy to focus more on its U.K. cable and mobile operations, which after years of investment appear to be turning the corner.

The Vodafone deal will give Liberty Global nearly $23 billion in cash and stock for its cable assets in Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. The deal officially scrubs Malone and Liberty from the German market, Europe’s second-largest, which it had tried for years to dominate. Now that market will be left to Vodafone, already Germany’s largest cable operator, and that country’s No. 2 player, telco Deutsche Telekom.

With the deal, Vodafone will widen the cable TV gap between it and Deutsche Telekom, but the phone company will retain its broadband dominance. After the Liberty deal is closed, Vodafone would have about 14 million cable customers, compared with 3.2 million for DT. According to company reports, Deutsche Telekom controls about 13.4 million broadband customers in Germany, while Liberty and Vodafone will have a combined 10 million.

Some analysts believe the deal will have a rough time obtaining approval, but Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said it should pass muster with the European Union in about a year.

Related: Regulators Likely to Block or Restrict Vodafone-Liberty Global Deal: Analyst

In an interview with CNBC, Fries said the German market is “screaming for consolidation and a real national challenger.” Germany has been a growing, profitable market for Liberty Global — revenue rose 8.7% in the first quarter and operating cash flow was up 11.8% — although its pay TV subscriber growth has slowed. Still, the properties attracted a hefty multiple.

Fries told CNBC prior to Liberty Global’s Q1 earnings announcement that the decision to sell to Vodafone was simple, as the price was right.

At $22.7 billion, the Vodafone deal values the assets at about 11.5 times 2018 estimated cash flow, a huge premium to Liberty Global’s current trading multiple of about 7 times.

“It’s a premium valuation,” Fries told CNBC, adding that this isn’t the first time Liberty Global has sold assets, noting the 2006 sale of its French properties to Altice N.V. “We’re trying to be agile, smart and see the playing field clearly. Long-term, this is going to be a great transaction.”

But this deal has the potential to be transformative for all parties involved. Vodafone gets another arrow in its quad-play quiver of video, voice, data and wireless services. Liberty Global gets a great payday, but is essentially shedding one-third of its business.

With the Vodafone deal and a pending transaction to sell its Austrian operations to Deutsche Telekom for $2.3 billion (expected to close in the second half of this year), Liberty will pare the number of countries it operates in from 11 to six and its total customers from 22 million to 11 million.

No Brexit Here

With those deals, Liberty Global’s Virgin Media U.K. operations become even more strategically important, as they will represent more than half of Liberty’s total cash flow. And while Virgin Media has struggled in the past — subscriber growth has been sluggish, and with 5.9 million video customers it is a distant No. 2 to top pay TV service provider Sky (23 million) — it has started to turn the corner, at least financially.

Revenue growth at Virgin Media has soared in the past five quarters, from 1.7% in Q1 2017 to 5.2% in Q1 2018. At the same time, operating cash flow has grown from about 1% in Q1 2017 to 5.5% in Q1 2018, Liberty reported.

Liberty is also pumping money into the U.K. business. It rolled out its new advanced set-top for cable customers, V6, to 500,000 households in Q1; the product is currently in 41% of Virgin Media’s homes. And in 2014 it started building a fiber network, called Project Lightning, that is expected to reach 4 million homes by the end of 2019 at a cost of about $3.9 billion.

The buildout has hit some snags and last year was revamped because of delays and problems with independent contractors in some communities. But the project is ongoing, and with $13 billion in cash from the Vodafone sale, Virgin could have the resources to accelerate Project Lightning and perhaps build out its own mobile network.

Mobile is beginning to emerge as a growth area for Virgin, which has about 3 million customers through a Mobile Virtual Network Operator agreement with U.K. wireless company BT. Virgin added 69,000 post-paid mobile subscribers in the U.K. and Ireland in Q1, Liberty Global said, 89% higher than the previous year. Overall, mobile revenue growth has turned from a negative 8% in Q1 2017 to positive 5% in Q1 2018.

In a research note, Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak praised the deal for its robust multiples. For Liberty, he added, the task will be to sustain its financial growth, but there could be room for other deals.

“Like most of the rest of the cable industry, Liberty Global likely remains mainly about sizeable cash flows (and deployment of those cash flows) in 2019,” Wlodarczak wrote, adding that Virgin Media could be a possible target of Comcast, should Comcast’s bid for U.K. satellite company Sky fail.

Fries was encouraged by Virgin’s performance, but also left the door open should a similar opportunity arise.

“We have a really strategically complete business today in the U.K.,” Fries told CNBC. “We’re happy with it, we’re going to create great value over the long term. If somebody comes up and says they have to own it, we’ll pick up the phone, of course. But at this point, we’re happy.”

Liberty Global shares were hammered on Wednesday, down as much as 10% ($3.15 each) to $28 per share in the wake of a mixed first quarter and the announcement of a deal to sell assets in Germany and Eastern Europe to Vodafone for $23 billion.

The stock began to show some signs of recovery in later trading. It was priced at $29.37 each, down $1.78 per share (5.7%) by the early afternoon.

Liberty Global shares have been on a rollercoaster ride over the past five months, falling more than 20% since the beginning of the year. The stock, which reached a new 52-week low on April 26 – along with several other cable stocks -- seemed to be on the uptick over the past few days, closing at $32.91 on May 7, up nearly 4% for the day and its highest point since March. But that rise was short lived.

Talks between Liberty Global and Vodafone have been ongoing since February. Investors are apparently wary that the deal, which would make Vodafone a strong No. 2 in German cable but would remove a competitor from the market, could face pushback from regulators.

At the same time, Liberty Global’s subscriber softness continues. In the first quarter, the company said it added 66,000 revenue generating units – a combination of fixed voice, video, data and mobile subscribers – a 74% decline from the prior year. Despite that decline, revenue was up 4.2% and operating income rose 4.7%, ahead of estimates.

Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak said the sell-off is likely a combination of the transaction announcement and confusion over the deal multiple. He said Vodafone used a different accounting method and came up with a deal multiple that was lower than Liberty Global’s. However, the analyst sticks by his calculation that the price represents about 11 times 2018 estimated cash flow.

And he added, while he considers the sell-off an over-reaction, it represents the current climate for cable.

“The sun rising seems to be an excuse to sell cable stocks,” Wlodarczak said.   

Vodafone’s proposed $23 billion play for Liberty Global operations in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania won’t be a slam dunk, an industry analyst believes.  

RELATED: Vodafone to Buy Liberty Global Assets for $23B 

Though the deal would position Vodafone to establish a stronger rival to Deutsche Telekom, “we strongly believe that regulators will block or restrict the deal,” Paolo Pescatore, VP of multiplay and media at CCS Insight, explained in a research note. “Vodafone and Liberty Global have a relatively solid presence in the fixed-line and TV markets, so any move would cut the number of companies in both segments.” 

But Pescatore also stressed that the proposed deal is beneficial to both sides, as it will enable Liberty Global to dispose of what he views as non-core assets and help it strengthen its position in other markets, including the United Kingdom. Likewise, the deal will bolter Vodafone’s convergence initiative, as nearly 30% of European service revenue now comes way of its fixed-line business, and has parallels with its previous acquisitions of Kabel Deutschland in Germany and Ono in Spain.  

Thought the proposed deal “is not a game changing move,” it would reinforce the notion that operators need to own both fixed and mobile networks in the 5G era, Pescatore pointed out.  

“The joint venture in the Netherlands’ has laid out the blueprint for both companies to come closer together,” he added.  

Liberty Global confirmed perhaps the worst kept secret in international cable, agreeing to sell its cable businesses in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania to wireless giant Vodafone in a deal valued at about $22.7 billion.

Liberty and Vodafone had been in talks about a deal since February. On Tuesday, The Financial Times reported the two were close to a deal. 

After the transaction is completed, Liberty Global will continue to have European cable operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and Slovakia, reaching 24 million homes and 26 million video, broadband and fixed-line telephony subscribers and 6 million mobile services. In addition, Liberty Global owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a joint venture in the Netherlands with 4 million customers subscribing to 10 million fixedline and 5 million mobile services.

“We have a rich history at Liberty Global of successfully developing and reshaping our business to drive innovation, advance customer services and create significant value for shareholders,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “This is one of those moments.”

The deal values the Liberty Global assets at a double-digit cash flow multiple and will pump $12.7 billion in cash into the Denver-based company.

For Vodafone, which already owns Kabel Deutschland in Germany and Ono in Spain, the deal solidifies its standing as one of the leading wireline and wireless providers in Europe.

The deal, which is expected to attract intense scrutiny from European regulators, is anticipated to close in mid-2019.

“This transaction will create the first truly converged
pan-European champion of competition. It represents a step change in Europe’s transition to a Gigabit Society and a transformative combination for Vodafone that will generate significant value for shareholders,” Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao said in a statement. “We are committed to accelerating and deepening investment in next generation mobile and fixed networks, building on Vodafone’s track record of ensuring that customers benefit from the choice of a strong and sustainable challenger to dominant incumbent operators. Vodafone will become Europe’s leading next generation network owner, serving the largest number of mobile customers and households across the EU.”

LionTree and Goldman Sachs are acting as financial advisers to Liberty Global on the transaction. Morgan Stanley, Robey Warshaw and UBS are acting as financial advisers to Vodafone, and Slaughter and May is acting as legal adviser to Vodafone.

Liberty Global, the international cable giant controlled by John Malone, is close to selling a large chunk of its cable assets to European wireless giant Vodafone, in a deal valued at about $23 billion, according to several press reports.

According to The Financial Times, a deal could be announced as early as Wednesday morning and would include Liberty Global’s assets in Germany and Eastern Europe. Later reports, citing people familiar with the companies, said assets in Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania would be involved in the deal.

The transaction would create a strong No. 2 competitor to Deutsche Telekom, which dominates the area. And though it would face intense regulatory scrutiny, the combined entity would create a full quad-play provider of wireless, internet, video and landline telephony.

Vodafone, which has more than 120 million wireless customers in Europe, also has been a player in the cable space. It already owns Kabel Deutschland, the largest cable operator in Germany and Ono in Spain. Liberty Global’s U.K. operations, offered under the Virgin Media brand, are not part of the discussions. 

Last year Vodafone entered into a joint venture with Liberty Global’s Ziggo in The Netherlands to create a quadruple play offering of wireless, video, voice and data.

The two companies haven’t made their interest a secret – they last acknowledged they were in talks in February. 

Like its U.S. counterparts, Liberty Global has struggled with video subscriber losses. Liberty Global lost about 84,000 video revenue generating units in the first quarter, more than five times the 15,000 RGUs it shed in the prior year.  

Virgin Media’s long-standing relationship with TiVo appears to be in line for a bit of a change.

Speaking at this week’s Cable Congress event in Dublin, Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s CEO, reportedly dropped a hint that the operator has plans to transition over to the “Horizon” user interface used by parent company, Liberty Global, but stressed that TiVo’s technology will remain in the picture.

“It’s no secret that Liberty Global has its own Horizon UI at the moment and you can expect that we will transition to that on the V6 box and we’ll do that in co-operation with TiVo,” he said, according to Broadband TV News. “They are very understanding of our desire to do that and will help us do that.”

A Virgin Media official said the company had nothing to add beyond Mockridge’s comments about using the Horizon UI. “There’s no changes to announce at this time and all UK set-top boxes continue to use the TiVo platform today,” the official said in an email.

TiVo has also been asked for comment. Last fall, TiVo announced it had renewed and extended its products agreement with Liberty Global, which included a multi-year extension for the MSO’s use of TiVo’s intellectual property and patent portfolio that covers all Liberty global subsidiaries, including Virgin Media, which has been using TiVo’s software and interface for its recently launched V6 box.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform

Virgin Media reported last month that more than 1 million subs, or 27% of its U.K. video base, have taken the Arris-made V6 box (pictured) since its launch in December 2016, and that V6 subs have “meaningfully higher” Net Promoter Scores.

Questions about the longer-term relationship between Virgin Media and TiVo also comes up as TiVo looks to explore alternatives that could lead to M&A or taking the company private.

RELATED: TiVo ‘Exploring All Alternatives’ to Drive Shareholder Value

Liberty Global is teaming with Benu Networks to support the MSO’s transition to IPv6 using a dual-stack approach.

Liberty Global will head that way using Benu’s IPv6 Dual-Stack (DS-Lite) solution, using the vendor’s Virtual Service Edge (VSE) platform, which provides a software-managed approach at the CPE level, as the foundation.

Liberty Global and Benu have also teamed with Arris on the design, integration and deployment of the IPv6 solution.

They said the transitional approach with dual-stack will pivot Liberty Global to IPv6 without interrupting its legacy use of IPv4.

ISPs around the world are migrating to IPv6, and its massive pool of IP addresses, as the IPv4 pool depletes. Comcast polished off its IPv6 dual stack network deployment in 2014.

RELATED: ARIN: IPv4 Free Pool Runs Dry

The dual-stack approach, they said, will help the operator move to IPv6 without requiring any public IPv4 addresses to be assigned to the CPE. It also enables support of IPv6 traffic in the ISP core network, they said.

Liberty Global, an investor in Benu Networks, initially purchased the vendor’s Virtual Service Edge platform to support its community WiFi service, and for a Static IP virtual CPE solution for its business customers.

RELATED: Liberty Global, Arris Join Benu's Backers

Former Virgin Media exec Dana Strong has been named president, consumer services, at Comcast Cable, where she will head up the go-to-market strategy for Comcast’s residential services.

In that role, Strong will oversee Comcast’s Xfinity brand and products, including video, broadband, voice, home and mobile products, as well as consumer sales and marketing, digital, Xfinity.com and the company’s data intelligence groups that support the strategy and growth of Comcast’s consumer business. Leaders in those respective business units will remain in their positions and report to Strong, Comcast said.  

For example, Matt Strauss, EVP of Xfinity Services at Comcast Cable; and Greg Butz, who heads up Xfinity Mobile, will remain in their roles, reporting to Strong.

Strong, who will report to Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, comes on board as Comcast’s pay TV business continues to face pressure from new OTT entrants, as the company looks to scale up Xfinity Mobile, a service that launched last May and ended 2017 with more than 380,000 customer lines, and as the company seeks growth opportunities in other areas, including home security and automation.

RELATED: Xfinity Mobile Starting to See ‘Real Momentum’

Strong most recently was president and COO of Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO that Liberty Global acquired in 2013.  She also served as SVP and chief transformation officer of Liberty Global, and was CEO of UPC Ireland (now Virgin Media Ireland) and as COO of Austar United Communications in Australia. 

Strong and her family are relocating from London and she will officially begin at Comcast in the first quarter of 2018, Comcast said. 

“Dana has an impressive career and great track record driving growth, digital transformation and improving the customer experience for some of the fastest growing companies in the industry,” Watson said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to welcome her to Comcast and can’t imagine a better leader to partner with me and our talented team as we continue to create the most innovative products available on the market, while driving growth and transforming the customer experience.” 

“I am delighted to join Comcast at such an exciting time for the company and our industry,” Strong added.  Comcast has built an extraordinary portfolio of products and it’s a privilege to join the team and lead this incredible business.”

Virgin Media, Liberty Global’s U.K.-based MSO, is hitting the gas on the V6, a new 4K-capable flagship video device introduced in November 2016 that is powered by TiVo’s software and services platform and built by Arris.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform 

Virgin Media said it installed 1 million V6s during its first year of avaialbity and will try to accelerate its reach by offering existing pay TV customers a free upgrade to the box. The catch is that they must also get broadband service from Virgin.

The operator, the U.K.’s largest MSO, said it expects to end 2018 with the majority of its TV subs on the V6 (pictured).

Virgin Media, which had about 4.11 million video subs at the end of Q3 2017, said it will contact eligible customers about how they can request the V6 upgrade, and expects the “vast majority” of them to use a self-install option, a move that will keep truck roll costs in check.

In addition to supporting 4K resolution, the V6 also integrates OTT services from sources such as Netflix and YouTube, which already support a small but growing library of content in the pixel-packed format.

The box also features a remote-finder button that, when pressed, causes the remote to make a trackable beeping sound. It has 1 terabyte of storage, and can record six shows at the same time, or 12 if the customer links two of them together.

In the first year of deployment, Virgin Media noted that compared with customers who use an earlier-generation TiVo device from the MSO, V6 customers spend, on average, two hours more watching TV each week, are twice as likely to watch a “Box Set,” and record twice as many shows.

Liberty Global said it has reached an agreement to sell its Austrian operations, UPC Austria, to T-Mobile Austria in a deal valued at $1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

As of Sept. 30 UPC Austria passed about 1.4 million homes and had 654,000 customers, including 513,000 broadband, 450,000 voice and 468,000 video subscribers. The deal comes in at a healthy multiple – about 11 times UPC Austria’s estimated 2017 cash flow

Liberty expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2018.

“This transaction highlights the strategic and financial value of our fiber-rich networks in a rapidly converging world and the significant synergies inherent in fixed-mobile mergers,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “We have operated in Austria for over 20 years and are extremely proud of the market-leading position we’ve built in both digital video and super-fast broadband. Looking forward, we believe the combination of UPC Austria and T-Mobile Austria will provide the national scale necessary to compete with larger companies like A1, and provide residential and business consumers with the highest quality services at the best price. We remain focused on value creation for our shareholders and are pleased with the premium valuation being attributed to one of our smaller operating markets.”

Liberty said the proceeds from the deal will be used for general corporate purposes, including debt reduction, re-investment into the business or share buybacks. Liberty Global has agreed to provide certain transitional services – primarily network and IT functions – for a period of up to four years. The annual charges will depend on the actual level of services required by T-Mobile Austria. Liberty Global will also allow T-Mobile Austria to use the UPC brand for a transitional period of up to three years as part of the transaction.

LionTree Advisors acted as a financial adviser to Liberty Global on the transaction.

SeaChange International said one of its key customers, Liberty Global, will use the vendor’s Adrenalin multiscreen video platform to help power the MSO’s next-gen, cloud-based “Horizon 4” services.

SeaChange announced the deal on solid Q3 results. Shares were up 60 cents (21.43%) to $3.40 in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Financial terms of the new Liberty Global deal were not disclosed, but it keeps SeaChange firmly engaged with a major global operator with deployments across Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The cloud-based approach will support a virtualized video platform architecture for Horizon, and enable Liberty Global develop and deploy services at a faster pace, SeaChange said.

“As video platforms transition to virtualized cloud infrastructure and enable advanced capabilities such as replay TV and network DVR to multiple devices, SeaChange will continue to support customers like Liberty Global to monetize their video assets and modernize their video delivery platforms,” Ed Terino, SeaChange’s CEO, said in a statement.

SeaChange, which has been undergoing a restructuring and facing calls by an investor to sell the company, announced the deal as it disclosed Q3 financial results.

RELATED: Investor Pushes SeaChange to Sell

SeaChange posted Q3 revenues of $23.4 million, up 17% year-on-year, and GAAP income of $900,000 (3 cents per fully diluted share), versus a year-ago loss of $8.4 million (24 cents per share). It ended the period with cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities of about $37 million, and no debt outstanding.

“SeaChange's financial performance in the quarter represents excellent progress in reaching our year-end goals more quickly. Across all metrics - revenues, gross margins and non-GAAP EPS - we outperformed our guidance,” CFO Peter Faubert said.

SeaChange expects Q4 revenues of $20 million to $24 million, and a loss from operations of $0.03 per basic share to operating income of $0.05 per fully diluted share.

For the full fiscal 2018, SeaChange raised expected revenues to the range of $77 million to $81 million, and a narrowed GAAP loss of 14 cents to 22 cents per basic share.

DENVER — Though 1 Gigabit per second is the new billboard speed for broadband, the growth rate in downstream data speeds shows signs of slowing, though the precise reasons why have yet to be pinpointed.

That’s according to several top cable engineering executives who spoke at the SCTE•ISBE Rocky Mountain Chapter’s annual “Tech Exec It Out” panel. The panel followed the daylong Tech It Out conference held Nov. 16 by the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Rocky Mountain chapter.

Downstream data speeds had been getting about 50% faster per year, but that number has dropped to about 40% in some cases, panelists said in a session moderated by Leslie Ellis, president of Ellis Edits and Multichannel News technology columnist.

That trend suggests that downstream demand is shifting from exponential growth to linear growth, Tom Cloonan, chief technology officer of network solutions at Arris, said.

Building in Growth Potential
Matt Petersen, vice president of access architecture at Charter Communications, said the MSO is seeing a slight decrease in downstream demand. Nevertheless, Charter is pushing ahead with plans to roll out DOCSIS 3.1. Even if downstream data demands have begun to drop, though, the current pace of growth isn’t weak by any stretch.

“Forty percent is not slow,” Cloonan said, predicting that the industry’s hybrid fiber/coax networks will be equipped to deliver speeds of 10 Gbps in the 2020s.

Jorge Salinger, vice president of access architecture at Comcast, said data demands have ebbed and flowed before. “We’ve seen this time and time again,” he said.

Downstream trends aside, the industry is starting to key on new technologies and techniques that can help MSOs drive more capacity into the upstream. A big part of that centers on Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX), an emerging CableLabs spec that envisions multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds.

The industry is making progress with FDX. CableLabs issued the physical layer specs for Full Duplex DOCSIS last month, a milestone that gives suppliers what they need to push ahead more rapidly with product development.

Related: Full Duplex DOCSIS Plows Ahead

“Gigabit in the upstream is an important addition,” Salinger said. Demand for upstream data isn’t being led so much by consumer activity as by machine-to-machine communications — such as cameras that record 24 hours a day, store content locally and then transmit that data upstream — and the all-encompassing Internet of Things.

“It’s something we can’t ignore,” Bill Warga, vice president of technology for Liberty Global, said.

Knittle said CableLabs is preparing to start interoperability tests of FDX-based nodes in Q1 of 2018, and the current plan is to be ready for full-on testing by the start of 2019. The timing is gauged on the availability of silicon, he said. “But it’s all starting right now.”

Pivoting to ‘Remote PHY’
Also underway is a pivot to more distributed, “remote PHY” architectures that place more electronics at the edge of the network and can bring more fidelity and capacity to the network while also relieving power and space requirements at the headend. “The node is getting smarter,” Warga said.

Distributed architectures will also enable cable operators to virtualize the network, and put more functions in software and lessen the reliance on purpose-built hardware.

Liberty Global said it has teamed up with the government of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board on a “mobile WiFi Tour” that is providing free internet connections to communities there that were most severely impacted by Hurricane Maria.

Headed up by Liberty Cablevision Puerto Rico, the free WiFi Tour includes three mobile units specifically designed for first aid communications after a natural disaster, the operator said. Kymeta, a company that includes Liberty Global Ventures as a financial backer, supplied the satellite antennas, while Intelsat is delivering the Internet connectivity.

Each mobile unit is equipped with satellite antennas that provide internet to the municipalities which the PRTRB determined have the greatest telecommunications needs. Those mobile WiFi vehicles are also leading a caravan of locally provided goodwill and services such as FEMA, banking, insurance, food, water, medical supplies and doctors to 29 remote towns that do not currently have internet connectivity, Liberty Global added.

“Liberty Global’s free WiFi Tour represents our steadfast commitment to aiding the people of Puerto Rico at their greatest time of need with services that have an immediate impact,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “I can attest first-hand to the bravery of Puerto Ricans, and to the fierce determination of our Liberty employees in helping restore services to our customers. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board, the Government of Puerto Rico and our collaborating partners for coming together to bring this private enterprise and public agency partnership to life.”

Liberty Global has already committed $1 million of funding to the Liberty Foundation in Puerto Rico and the Cable & Wireless Charitable Foundation, which were established to assist victims of the recent hurricanes in the region.

RELATED: Liberty Global Weighs Financial Impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria

Last week, Liberty Global noted in its Q3 results that the effects of the recent storms negatively impacted Liberty Puerto Rico’s and C&W's revenue by an estimated $19 million and $3 million, respectively.

Balan Nair, the chief technology and innovation officer at Liberty Global, has been appointed president and CEO of the company’s Latin American and Caribbean operation, and will take that role once the unit is split-off from Liberty Global.

Liberty Global expects to complete that split-off of that unit as a separate, public company around the end of the year.

Liberty Global said a search for a successor to Nair in the CTO role is underway. Nair will remain in his current position at the company until the split-off is completed.

RELATED: Liberty Global Weighs Financial Impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria

Nair, who has been overseeing a workforce of 7,500 and a capital budget of $5 billion-plus in as Liberty Global’s CTO, currently sits on the boards of Charter Communications and Adtran, and is co-chair of Energy 2020, an SCTE/ISBE initiative dedicated to reducing cable’s network power requirements.

“Balan is an exceptional technologist and operating executive who has delivered tremendous value to our company as CTO,” Mike Fries, Liberty Global’s CEO, who will serve as executive chairman of the Latin American unit of the company, said in a statement. “He has led us into the future with next-generation broadband, video and mobile products, and has transformed our entire technology operating model. I am excited that Balan has agreed to lead this new company into the future, and I look forward to continuing our close working relationship as part of the broader Liberty family.”

RELATED: Cable-Tec Expo: The Network is Industry’s ‘Secret Sauce,’ Liberty Global CEO says

“It’s been a privilege to work with and learn from Mike Fries and John Malone, and I am proud and humbled to have the opportunity to continue collaborating with them in my new role as President and CEO of Liberty’s Latin American and Caribbean operation,” Nair added. “I plan to leverage my experience to build operating and strategic momentum for us in one of the world’s most exciting growth markets.”

In addition to Fries and Nair, the board of the new company is expected to include John Malone, currently chairman of Liberty Global; Liberty Global directors Paul Gould and Miranda Curtis; and Liberty Global CFO Charles Bracken.

Liberty Global said it has also identified three additional directors -- Eric Zinterhofer, lead independent director and former chairman of Charter Communications; Alfonso de Angoitia, Co-CEO of Grupo Televisa N.A.; and Brendan Paddick, former board member of Cable & Wireless Communications Plc, and founder and former CEO of Columbus Communications.

TiVo said it has renewed and extended its products agreement with Liberty Global, the Denver-based operator that serves cable and broadband customers across Europe and in parts of Latin America.

Financial terms of the agreement weren’t announced, but the deal also includes a multi-year extension to an intellectual property for TiVo’s patent portfolios that covers all Liberty Global subsidiaries. That includes Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO that has been using TiVo’s software and services platform as the centerpiece of its flagship video products.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform

The deal salts away another important patent and IP deal for TiVo, which remains at odds with Comcast.

RELATED: TiVo Shares Soar on Prelim ITC Ruling Against Comcast

“We have a long-standing, wide-ranging relationship with Liberty Global around the world as a trusted technology supplier,” Tom Carson, TiVo’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Liberty Global’s expanded license helps them optimize entertainment experiences for their customers and underscores the value TiVo brings to modern TV and broadband leaders around the world.”

Denver -- Cable operators are facing competition on all fronts, requiring them to develop and launch new services at a clip that’s never been as rapid.

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

But staying ahead of old and new rivals also means that MSOs must continue to invest in their “core competency, which is our networks,” Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global said here Wednesday in a keynote conversation with Tony Werner, president, technology and product at Comcast Cable. 

“This [the network] is the secret sauce for us,” Fries said. “We fight fire with fire.”

Keeping those networks humming and updated keeps cable ahead of the capacity curve while also keeping new competition in check.

One such competitor that came up was Amazon, which has “unprecedented scale” and “unquenchable ambition.”

“A press release from these guys can disrupt industries,” Fries said.

Though video represents just one-third of Liberty Global’s revenues, advancing that platform remains paramount, Fries said, citing his company’s work on its Horizon service and the company’s adoption of the Reference Design Kit, a preintgrated software stack for IP-connected set-tops and gateways.

He said Netflix proved out how seamless functionality and navigation across screens is now critical, believing that Liberty Global, which is integrating Netflix on its own boxes, has bridged that “functionality gap.”

Tying in Netflix is leading to more video consumption on Liberty Global’s platform and those customers tend to churn less and pay more. “Why wouldn’t you put Netflix in that box?” Fries said.

RELATED: RELATED: Liberty Global: Netflix for All

Turning to broadband, Fries said that service has been “the weapon of choice for us for some time” in Europe, calling it the company’s “killer app.”

The average customer, he said, now gets a 100 Mbps service on average, with “bull’s eye” speeds of 150 Mbps and 250 Mbps.

“We’re not selling anything with two digits anymore,” Fries said, adding that 90% of Liberty Global is now DOCSIS 3.1-ready, and is moving ahead with a D3.1 trial in Germany.

But Liberty Global, as some of its U.S.-based peers are becoming, is also a mobile company that delivers a quad-play largely through agreements with carriers that lets the MSO control the experience and essentially rent the towers.

“We’re all-in on mobile,” Fries said.

Fries also addressed the challenges Liberty Global and others in the industry face when it comes to attracting top talent.

He said Liberty Global, despite being a large company, has become “agile” in an entrepreurual sense.

“We’re bobbing and weaving where we need to be…We’re also in the center of everything that’s cool that’s happening,” he said, citing areas such as internet video, broadband, the Internet of Things and the content business. “Things are pivoting around us.”

Werner acknowledged that cable might not always be the first choice for some, “but we can compete in that [talent] market.”

Earlier in the conversation, Fries also addressed the massive challenges Liberty Global has been facing in Puerto Rico and other islands that were devastated by massive hurricanes.

“It’s about as bad as it gets,” Fries said, noting that the company has about 1,000 employees in Puerto Rico alone. Of the 1 million homes passed there, less than 1% are currently online.

“We’ll rebuild the networks,” Fries said. “But [it’s] more important to rebuild communities.”

Liberty Global has raised about $1.5 million for relief efforts. “It’s been rough, but I think we’ll rebound,” he said.

Penthera Partners, a company that specializes in software that manages the secure downloading of TV shows, movies and other large digital files to mobile devices, said it as received a $6 million investment from Liberty Global Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of cable legend John Malone’s international cable giant Liberty Global.

"I am truly excited that Liberty Global will be helping us grow Penthera and realize the full potential of our technology,” Penthera CEO Michael Willner said in a statement. “Proceeds from this financing will be used to expand our worldwide sales efforts and accelerate the development of new products and enhancements to our existing products."

Penthera develops software that allows customers to watch content when they don’t have access to a suitable internet connection. Its products have been used by several content providers servicing millions of users, including Showtime, Starz, Comcast, and Charter Communications.

"After vetting available technologies we were impressed with the feature sets included in Penthera's SDK,” Liberty Global chief technology officer (Europe) Dan Hennessy said in a statement. “Whether it's for viewing video when connectivity is limited, intermittent or expensive, downloading is a feature we know customers want and will value greatly, which is why we decided to invest in the company."  

The 2017 Tech Roundtable Panelists
Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer, Cox Communications
Dan Hennessy, chief architecture architect, Liberty Global
Jay Rolls, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Charter Communications
JR Walden, senior vice president of technology and CTO, Mediacom Communications
Tony Werner, president of technology and product, Comcast Cable
Read More From the 2017 Tech Roundtable Agenda
Capacity|Mobile & Wireless|The Home of the Future

MCN:What matters beyond speed and throughput/range and reach for some of the services headed our way -- augmented reality, augmented discovery, VR, aging in place, automation, healthcare? Pick your favorite.
Jay Rolls: What matters is network latency, and overall visibility. Things like AR and health care and adjacent verticals -- it’s all about interactivity, and the rapid translation of photons to electrons.

Technologies like 802.11ax will help with the latency quest, which will be never-ending. And real-time, local visibility into how the network is running will help us to deliver a consistently high quality of experience, across devices.

Kevin Hart: We're very excited about home healthcare...around enabling the aging population. Just based on demographics, there's a huge need and a huge opportunity, but within the network some of the artificial intelligence and some of the connectivity speeds but also some of the privacy components around HIPAA-compliant information ...are also important.

The infrastructure we're putting into place, from a speed [perspective] is great, but privacy and security and latency, some of the real-time responses, I think will become even more important as you see more [need] for remote healthcare monitoring and more healthcare-centric solutions over time.

Dan Hennessy: Other network conditions start to come in to play here, like latency, jitter, and packet loss.
We have equipment distributed across our footprint and in our network that allows us to closely monitor these parameters – to ensure that we know if it changes, why it changed, and what it means to the customer. This will become increasingly important. New standards, such as DOCSIS 3.1, also have targeted changes to improve the quality of service.

Tech Roundtable 2016 | Cable Tech at a Crossroads

For sure, what we expect, and as discussed in context of IoT, is a continued growth in devices. Giving our customers visibility and control is key. Making sure their devices get the right priority, and remain secure, powered, live and connected on the network -- as more and more devices connect and need proper “care and feeding” -- becomes more critical to day-to-day life.

MCN: How has your reliance on the public cloud evolved over the last couple of years? Are you using more public or private cloud, and why does that matter?
KH: It's really a hybrid of all of the above, based on the use case. We're doing a lot of things internally and some our own cloud capabilities with infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service and some of the things we're doing around virtualization. We also use third-party clouds where it makes sense, based on their skillsets and capability. And from a managed service perspective, we have some product and service offerings leveraging cloud-based components. But now that you've adopted this hybrid cloud environment, it's now about how do you optimize it for performance and cost and security -- that's probably the next frontier.

JR: We rely on both -- private and public. Both are good at different things, and the crux of it is taking advantage of what they’re good at. For instance, the public cloud is good for things that need velocity -- prototyping, instantaneous scaling. The private cloud is more for things that are in production, which need to be highly secure. A good example is cloud DVR. Cloud DVR is obviously going to need a lot of cloud infrastructure, but it’s also well understood, with well-defined metrics. Because you know how it’s going to perform, it’s just going to be more cost effective to do on a private cloud.

MCN: What is the right balance of engineering talent you need these days, and how do you attract it?
Tony Werner: We do a lot of recruiting, especially when we’re speaking at non-traditional industry events. The right balance is a tricky task - we still need RF engineers, because we still operate a lot of RF. We still need infrastructure experts, because we operate a significant infrastructure. In general, though, it’s software, systems, and architectural engineering talent that we seek. We’ve made significant strides in how we attract that talent, primarily by making sure that Comcast is a great environment for developers and innovators to come work, but we can always do more.

JR Walden: We're finding less need for HFC talent every day, in part because you still have a lot in the organization, so demands are kind of in the decline. Five to ten years ago, it was hard finding network skills. The battle for high-speed data is over. Cable has won. And most people in professional areas see that, so people with networking skills who have interest in being in the internet business are finding us a lot more than ever before.

Tech Roundtable 2015 | Revving Up to ‘Web Speed’

The area of challenge is on the software side. That has been tougher. I guess the good news is that being near New York doesn’t make for the most inexpensive job market, but people with those skills in New York are definitely not working for .com companies. At least I'm not competing for that talent. We've been plucking millennials straight out of college and teaching them ourselves and hoping that they don't leave too quickly. But we seem to be doing okay keeping the folks we have sort of home-grown.

KH: Investing in our people and our talent is a top priority at Cox in both product and technology and training and skillsets. [In early October], my team worked on an operating model of the future for the team, but software-enabled everything is critical, virtualization is critical, cybersecurity skills are paramount.

We bring in talent through recruiting and through our third-party vendors and we also have a very robust co-op and intern programs, and interns from leading schools like George Tech right here in Atlanta. Tulsa is one of our markets, and they have one of the top cybersecurity schools in the country. We're bringing in interns and co-ops and recruits from these feeder schools and also brining in talent with a lot of experience, as well, from some of these new trending areas, like mobility, IP, cybersecurity, etc.

DH: Our move away from closed vendor ecosystems to open, embedded software development -- either directly ourselves or with partners – means we must ensure that we have the right talent onboard. It’s these engineers that drive our business forward.

Over the last 12 months we have brought our technology group together across Europe, which gives a truly global opportunity for our engineers and developers to build products and services -- all the way from the UK, Germany and Switzerland, through to Eastern Europe, and across to Latin American and the Caribbean. Whether it’s fixed or mobile access, Internet, TV and video, or a full suite of B2B services. That’s a pretty rare opportunity.

JR: The right balance is the technologist who has a degree of nimbleness between hardware and software, and tends to think about things from a systems perspective. We’ve been surprised to see talent coming to our Denver engineering groups from Silicon Valley. The recurring themes appear to be both quality of life, and cost of living. I think you’ll see more and more evidence that shows a talent shift in our collective direction, and that’s really gratifying.

The 2017 Tech Roundtable Panelists
Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer, Cox Communications
Dan Hennessy, chief architecture architect, Liberty Global
Jay Rolls, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Charter Communications
JR Walden, senior vice president of technology and CTO, Mediacom Communications
Tony Werner, president of technology and product, Comcast Cable

Read More From the 2017 Tech Roundtable Agenda
Capacity|Mobile & Wireless| Beyond Speeds and Feeds and Attracting Talent


MCN: To what extent are you gearing up to automate people’s homes to make them more useful?
Dan Hennessy: Our automation focus is very much linked to our core products and services, and where we can bring clear value right now: Voice search and control of our video services. Ensuring that all our platforms work in harmony. Installing new hardware in the home, like WiFi APs, such that it happens seamlessly. Giving customers a way to easily onboard third party IoT devices in their home.

What’s as important here is the business logic we’re building in our back office for “connectivity services.” It’s similar to what we’ve done for our video products and services, in terms of having a flexible, microservices-based back end that is open to third party integration.

JR Walden: We're an Icontrol affiliate [Comcast and Alarm.com bought pieces of Icontrol earlier this year]. It hasn’t been a huge business for us. I think we have concerns that trying to compete with CE companies in that space...is going to be tough for Icontrol, let alone Mediacom.

We want to be a service provider. We think we're good at being a service provider, so what’s the service here? We imagine providing some services to help facilitate and manage the customer's smart home and IoT device future. I don't know if we'll manage the service as a whole...but we think there's a place to play there. Like maybe you could use your Amazon Echo to do things on your TiVo set-top box...rather than using the remote or using a voice remote.

Rather than trying to be the guy who does everything, let's work with what people want, even if Google Home is the device or it's an Amazon device. We’re going to come out with a voice remote, too, that works with Nuance [Communications].

Kevin Hart: We're making great advances in our connected home and smart home platforms. We’re leveraging the existing platform, but we've also got other future-state possibilities, and coupling the Cox HomeLife platform offering with our Panoramic WiFi [product]. We've been going market to market and connecting a home and making it a true smart home with over 50 or so connected devices in the home, and virtual reality and home care demos, robotic dogs, you name it. We're also doing a little bit some remote healthcare monitoring. There's a lot of possibilities here and I think we're just scratching the surface of the industry.

Tony Werner: With the combination of xFi and Xfinity Home we think we’re in an ideal position to give our customers a simple one-stop solution for controlling their connected homes. With xFi, we take the mystery and guesswork out of our customers’ home WiFi networks, providing a real-time dashboard of what devices are on the network and how they are performing. With Xfinity Home, we’ve combined a powerful home security solution, with an increasingly integrated IoT hub. Through our “Works With Xfinity” program, our customers can control their Nest thermostats, August locks, Chamberlin garage door openers, and many other popular IoT devices all from their Xfinity Home app. We are continuously bringing more partners onto the platform. On the backend, we’re leveraging machine learning and our own homegrown rules engine to give our customers more pinpoint control over how their connected homes work.

MCN: In what ways is AI and machine learning guiding your technology strategy?
DH: AI and ML already exist in our businesses in a number of different areas -- both embedded in our products and services, and also as part of a number of new avenues we’re investigating. Not just customer facing, but for operational and engineering analytics use cases, too.

We’re using machine learning, for instance, to help us fine tune our understanding of how WiFi performs in our customer’s homes. RF modeling, and knowing those behaviors, can get us so far. Adding in telemetry from our devices in the field, and ML in the backend infrastructure, takes our insights to the next level.

Additionally, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the associated AI is already deployed as part of our voice search and personalization services. We see much more applicability here in the front lines of our business, where interactions across 24 million customers can be tailored much more accurately.

The key with AI and ML is telemetry and data management. To leverage these techniques, we need to be able to collect and analyze data. From that, we can affect changes back into our services and infrastructure -- whether this is across the network, our service platforms, or our care and operational support systems.

A big step in the right direction is to understand the art of the possible. We’re starting to innovate with partners, internally. We’ve started with multiple trials, and some first deployments as well.

Jay Rolls: Both AI and ML will play an increasing role across our technology stacks, from network management to troubleshooting to connecting customers with the content they want. I think as our networks become denser and more complex, adding more intelligence will help us mine data that matters to the overall success of the businesses.

MCN: What does the Internet of Things mean to your company?
KH: From a product standpoint, some of the analytics that are built into the products, whether they’re visual analytics or voice analytics are making the products more intelligent and more personal. The voice remote stuff is cool on the front end, but having contacts and predicting your next couple moves in the connected home are a big part of what you'll see more and more of on the product roadmap.

From a technology operational network perspective, there's things we are doing with software-defined networking and some of the intelligence we’re building in through software and quality of service and latency. And from an operational perspective, doing more and more with some of the artificial intelligence around quality of service, call-in rates and truck roll reduction and customer experience. It's early days, but we've seen some very promising results.

JR: Whether it’s ensuring security and privacy, or connecting customers to specific capabilities, like health monitoring and wellness -- the IoT scene, which our customers are bringing onto our networks by the handfuls, enables us to take a customer-centric approach. The key to the IoT and our industry is that it’s based on the common denominator of connectivity.

TW: We are committed to AI and machine learning, because we’ve seen firsthand how those technologies can make our products better and improve the customer experience. We use AI and Machine Learning algorithms today to advance and refine our Natural Language Processing platform, detect and fix incidents in our network, and help our customers find content they love. We’ve got a first-rate team of PhDs working on these technologies day and night, and customers are already seeing that reflected in the products they use every day.

DH: Opportunity, more than anything. We’re seeing an explosion in connected devices, for sure, and the need for seamless onboarding, increased visibility, control, configuration and management. This is a key consideration as we think about how we develop our connectivity products and services.

Our customers rely on us to ensure their home network is secure, effective, and above all, is just there. Available. The key will be which devices and services our customers bring into their homes. The IoT market remains fragmented, from a service and technology standards point of view (Sigfox, LoRa, NB-IoT etc.) We’re experimenting with most of these.

We also see many new partnership possibilities opening up, with both established and new players. The IoT landscape brings in very diverse industries -- from lighting, to kitchen goods, home security and other utilities. How these will play out, and where the value and roles lie, is still a work in progress.

Beyond residential, we’re seeing plenty of interest in the B2B segment. We have a number of trials with home builders and commercial real estate firms, where mutual opportunities exist. Whether it’s environmental sensors and control, WiFi coverage and management, broader sensor and device onboarding, or management.

MCN: What matters when the task is securing the physical home, as well as the digital stuff in it?
TW: One of our over-arching product goals is to provide equipment and services that behave like a courteous guest in the home. Always there, always on, always connected, and pleasing to the eye, but also always on the lookout. Our Xfinity Home product started out as a physical home security offering, and quickly expanded into automation and smart home. A big part of that overall philosophy is to safeguard for both physical belongings, and digital identities.

JR: It’s a one-word answer: Trust. We’re in a unique position, because we are poised to protect between the physical, and the digital. As IP-connected devices proliferate, in the home and the business, we are becoming the trusted entity. Both for reliable service, as well as stewards of security.

DH: Trust is key here, of course – with an operational model that truly supports the offering. In both residential and B2B markets, local regulation and standards compliance will influence our interest and ability to enter this market. We also don’t see (for now) the same degree of demand as we see in other markets (notably North America) for these services.

Liberty Global said it expects to receive insurance proceeds to cover the losses to operations in the Caribbean following in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, but, given the uncertainties linked to the recovery, it’s reviewing its previously-issued 2017 financial guidance for its Liberty Latin America and Caribbean (LiLAC) division, and plans to provide an update at the company’s Q3 call next month.

Liberty also announced that it has donated $1 million toward humanitarian relief efforts in the Caribbean, donating the sum to the Liberty Foundation in Puerto Rico and the Cable & Wireless Charitable Foundation.

Liberty Global noted that more than half its mobile sites of Cable & Wireless operations were affected in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Turks & Caicos, but are now online and that the company is making progress with further repairs.

The operator’s fixed networks also “suffered significant damage” in those markets, with work underway to reestablish connectivity as rapidly as possible, the company added.

Liberty Global said it also suffered some damage to its sub-sea systems, but that redundancy measures helped to maintain connectivity in all countries served, except for Dominica, which was temporarily offline but restored after the storms passed.

The areas hit hardest by the storms – Anguilla, BVI, Turks & Caicos and Dominica – represent about 4% of C&W’s Q2 2017 revenues.

The company is still assessing the impact that the hurricanes had on its Liberty Cablevision Puerto Rico operation and C&W in Puerto Rico are still being assessed, noting that business there continues to be challenged by water, fuel and food shortages and “severe damage to essential infrastructure.”

“We expect to receive insurance proceeds to cover the losses to our operations resulting from both Hurricanes Irma and Maria as part of our natural catastrophe risk management program,” Liberty Global said. “Because these hurricanes inflicted damage over a number of days and to a wide area, we are assessing the extent of damage and loss and the applicable terms of our insurance policy.”

Liberty Global said that, at this stage, it can’t provide assurances to the total amount and timing of the insurance proceeds that its operations will ultimately recover. 

***

LEARN MORE: NYC TV Week is coming up, starting with the 27th annual Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame on Monday, Oct. 16. For more about #NYCTVWK, click here

The focus of the cable industry used to be a lot simpler. Its lens was generally trained on how to deliver and wield a quality package of pay TV, broadband and voice service that could be used to thwart competition from the telcos and satellite-TV providers.

These days, those service and tech strategies also place a heavy emphasis on wireless (WiFi, in and out of the home, and mobile) and over-the-top video (as an emerging competitor and complementary offering). To support current services and those that are out on the horizon, cable operators are also moving ahead with strategies and architectures that help them use their existing bandwidth more efficiently, or by adding capacity through projects and initiatives such as DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS.

To get a fix on these areas of importance ahead of this month’s SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver (Oct. 17-20), Multichannel News caught up with a handful of top technology and engineering executives.

Taking part in this year’s virtual tech roundtable — an aggregation of separate interviews with MCN technology editor Jeff Baumgartner and columnist Leslie Ellis of Ellis Edits — were:
Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer, Cox Communications;
Dan Hennessy, chief architecture architect, Liberty Global;
Jay Rolls, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Charter Communications;
JR Walden, senior vice president of technology and CTO, Mediacom Communications; and
Tony Werner, president of technology and product, Comcast Cable.

The 2017 Agenda
Capacity|Mobile & Wireless|The Home of the Future| Beyond Speeds and Feeds and Attracting Talent

The 2017 Tech Roundtable Panelists
Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer, Cox Communications
Dan Hennessy, chief architecture architect, Liberty Global
Jay Rolls, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Charter Communications
JR Walden, senior vice president of technology and CTO, Mediacom Communications
Tony Werner, president of technology and product, Comcast Cable
Read More From the 2017 Tech Roundtable Agenda
Mobile & Wireless|The Home of the Future| Beyond Speeds and Feeds and Attracting Talent

MCN: What are your priorities, as it relates to network capacity?
Jay Rolls: Our priority is to constantly balance capacity against demand. It’s a never-ending quest. We watch it very closely, and we’re very pragmatic about it -- the volume of tools, metrics and ways to see what’s really happening, and invest accordingly, is really deepening in ways that matter.

Tony Werner: We’ve been on a pretty steady path of doubling our network capacity every 18-24 months for several years, and I don’t see anything that makes me think that will change. We’re making better and faster products for our customers who expect and deserve world-class online experiences, and the network has to deliver on that promise. The key from my perspective is staying ahead of that curve in a way that’s smart and future-proof. We’ve been strategically extending fiber further into our network to meet customer demand, and that effort, combined with our commitment to deploying DOCSIS 3.1 has given us a network that’s powerful, flexible, and ready for what’s next.

JR Walden: We have completed the removal of all the analog channels. That was the big step one. Step two was to start transitioning high-speed data over to DOCSIS 3.1, so we're not adding any more 3.0 channels, and reuse spectrum for 3.1, which is a bit more efficient. The whole company is 3.1, all of the modems we're buying since June have been 3.1, so we've begun that next transition. 

We're in the process of migrating to MPEG-4, mostly the HDs. That's following along with some of our set-top refresh -- getting some of the old MPEG-2-only capable boxes out of the network and we can transition more of the channels to MPEG-4. 

Right on the heels of that, we're going to start moving some channels, the lower-viewed channels and some premiums, over to IP. We're also reducing node sizes. We average about 285 homes to 290 homes per node as an average. 

Kevin Hart: Ultimately, our goal is to continue to provide a great customer experience with a competitive broadband product and service. To do that, we are continuing to keep pace with downstream and upstream data rates, which is key to being competitive with our speed offerings, and quality of service. Reducing latency is also a top priority.

We’re investing in the network and in those growth rates, in terms of downstream and upstream speeds. Those are key drivers. Ultimately, providing that in-home or on-premises (business) experience, with our WiFi products — is equally important.

Tech Roundtable 2016 | Cable Tech at a Crossroads

Dan Hennessy: We see demand increasing by up to 45% across our markets and in recent years, we responded with a wide deployment of CCAP [converged cable access platform] equipment throughout our footprint. That investment, along with ongoing node size optimization, enabled us to increase capacity at a much faster rate. As a result, 70 – 80% of our plant will be DOCSIS 3.1 ready by the end of next year, giving us a path to even greater capacity expansion allowing us to continue to increase the available capacity across our access network, upstream and downstream 

MCN: What is your strategy with regard to fiber?
TW: Suffice it to say that fiber plays a key role on our network architecture. Our network today contains more than 150,000 route miles of fiber, and to meet customer demand, we extend fiber further into the neighborhoods we serve each year. When it comes to delivering gigabit speeds, our focus is obviously on DOCSIS 3.1, and our new xFi Advanced Gateway, which will bring Gig availability to more people, in more markets than ever before. But part of the reason we’re able to deliver that capacity is because we’ve systematically enhanced our network with fiber.

I feel pretty strongly that the best path ahead is to leverage the existing coaxial network and DOCSIS resources to the fullest, then inch towards FTTH, over time. Why? Because we can. We don’t have to build an entire network just to turn up one customer.

KH: Once you leverage the existing coax that we have, by taking fiber deep toward an N+0 architecture, we're future-proofing our investment , we're positioning ourselves to leverage DOCSIS 3.1, and also position ourselves for Full Duplex, because symmetrical speeds will be important. 

And we're also thinking about the fiber investment and fiber deep as it relates to our wireless strategy, enabling some of our customer with a small cell strategy but also positioning ourselves to take advantage of that in the future as well as thinking about fiber deep to benefit both residential and our commercial customers simultaneously. 

We've got a ten-year network 2.0 network transformation plan, and fiber deep, DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex are at the core of what's driving the investment. 

DH: We’re aggressively future-proofing our network. Over 80% of our new build program is based on a combination of either fiber-deep, retaining the HFC final drop, or fiber-to-the-home.

The U.K. is a good example -- that’s where our “Project Lightning” network expansion initiative is happening (announced in early 2015). Cable network build had been very limited in parts of the U.K. since the ‘80s, and until a few years ago and is now benefiting from this fiber strategy.

JW: [Fiber deep] is a bit further out, at least as a large-scale type of project. I think fiber deep for MDUs, high-density areas and some planned communities, higher end communities doing deeper fiber or fiber-to-the-home [is happening]. But as a wholesale [change] and going to node+0 kind of architecture, I don't see that in the next two years. 

Tech Roundtable 2015 | Revving Up to ‘Web Speed’

JR: Fiber-deep is part of the overall capacity conversation. We’re constantly analyzing and monitoring our infrastructure, and matching those results against the technologies we have in our portfolio -- whether that’s DOCSIS 3.1, or taking fiber deeper, or Full Duplex DOCSIS. It’s a rational approach, where we’re trying to balance the needs, the available technologies, and the costs. DOCSIS 3.1 has some pretty remarkable capabilities, but it’s not necessarily a hard-and-fast reason to not take fiber deeper, for instance. Different situations drive different capacity decisions. There’s nothing universal about it -- you have to take it on a market-by-market basis.

MCN: To what extent will you use bridging techniques, like remote PHY & DOCSIS 3.1?
DH: We’re already trialing and testing both Remote PHY and DOCSIS 3.1 across our footprint. Our plan of record is to exploit virtualized and distributed access architectures.

Our strategy is fully focused on leveraging 3.1 and cost to upgrade is less than 20 Euro per home passed, so a very efficient way of getting to speeds of 1 Gbps-plus.

KH: We're making tremendous progress in calendar year 2017 on our DOCSIS 3.1 CCAP deployment. We started in earnest early in the year and by the end of this year, we'll have over one-third of our footprint 3.1-enabled with north of 90% of our footprint enabled with 3.1 by the end of 2018 and early 2019. We're definitely going to be leveraging a remote PHY architecture and some of the early stage testing around remote PHY currently. 

JR: They both play a role. Just like DOCSIS 3.0 and PON played a role in the evolution of the network over the past five years, DOCSIS 3.1 and remote PHY are going to play a major role in the coming years. Everyone will be using them, us included. Like everything else, it’s a matter of matching the right tool to the right task.

TW: I could tell you how committed we are to DOCSIS 3.1, but it may be easier just to lay out our progress to date. Since December 2015, when we provisioned the world’s first DOCSIS 3.1 modem on a customer-facing network, we have been aggressively expanding our D3.1-powered gigabit offering. Today, we have deployed D3.1 in 23 states and dozens of markets, with more coming online all the time. What I love about this technology is that it is a cost-effective way to make gigabit speeds a reality for a far broader cross-section of Americans, and not just to those lucky few who live in a few select neighborhoods. As for remote PHY and DAA [Distributed Access Architecture], both technologies are advancing at a breakneck clip, and I think you’ll hear more from us about them soon. 

MCN: What are the consumer factors pushing you toward the desire to provide symmetrical bandwidth, and eventually take advantage of technologies like Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX)?
JR: The world of applications and services continues to evolve, obviously, but so far we’ve been able to meet those needs with an asymmetrical topology. That said, things like real-time gaming, augmented and virtual reality, and the Internet of Things -- some of those will likely drive more symmetry in the network. It remains to be seen. Whether it goes completely crazy, or just nudges the demand on the network, it’s good to have techniques like FDX on the drawing board.

KH: It’s a little but further out on the horizon. The upstream growth rate is ticking up a couple of notches, but not to the tune that we would need significant additional capacity and/or a complementary need for symmetrical bandwidth. We're still testing that, but the experiences, the gaming, the latency and interactive [applications] and additionally connected everything, I think, will be drivers of higher need for improved symmetrical speeds. But at this stage, the symmetrical is a nice-to-have for residential and definitely will be a good option for our commercial customers. 

DH: Presently, both our products and the consumption of those products are highly asymmetric. While we see some increase in upstream demand from cloud-based services, we don’t see the asymmetry changing any time soon.

Because of that, we are actively engaged with CableLabs and industry partners on the development of Full Duplex. We see it as part of our future access toolkit.

The 2017 Tech Roundtable Panelists
Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer, Cox Communications
Dan Hennessy, chief architecture architect, Liberty Global
Jay Rolls, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Charter Communications
JR Walden, senior vice president of technology and CTO, Mediacom Communications
Tony Werner, president of technology and product, Comcast Cable
Read More From the 2017 Tech Roundtable Agenda
Capacity|The Home of the Future|Beyond Speeds and Feeds and Attracting Talent

MCN: What are your wireless priorities?
Dan Hennessy: We believe that connectivity to the home, around the home, and on the go needs to be a high performance, reliable and seamless experience.  As such, we are focused on three areas.

For fixed broadband connectivity services in the home, we want to ensure that our customers are able to benefit from the power of our network -- both to and around the home. That’s regardless of where they live, what their home is like (how big and what it’s made of), or how many devices they want to connect to their in home WiFi. This is where a significant amount of engineering and innovation effort is spent.

From a mobile services perspective, it’s about making sure our customers get the best quad-play deal and experience out there. To do that, we will build on our MVNO capabilities across our markets. Where needed, we want to leverage VoWiFi technologies, to solve for in-home/business coverage issues. As well, we want to ensure that our customers are able to leverage our WiFi access points--roughly 10 million, across Europe. The goal is to bring the fixed and mobile connectivity experience together, seamlessly. To give our customers the best of both.

The third areas is specific to where we have a full MNO footprint, such as in Belgium. Telenet’s acquisition of the mobile operator, BASE, presented an opportunity to upgrade and deliver a world-class radio access network -- alongside the power of a cable access network.

Tech Roundtable 2016 | Cable Tech at a Crossroads

Jay Rolls: First is the launch of WiFi-first MVNO service with Verizon next year, which will serve us well for our short- and medium-term wireless goals.

Second is optimizing the WiFi experience for our residential and business customers. So many people equate “the internet” to “the WiFi signal”! That’s why it’s important that we continue to improve everyone’s WiFi.

Beyond that, we’re conducting both lab and field trials of CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service), in the unlicensed 3.5 GHz spectrum, as well as 5G millimeter wave technologies for fixed use cases, like backhaul.

Kevin Hart: The in-home experience, the on-premises experience and the experience within common spaces in MDUs -- about a third of our residential footprint is multi-dwelling units, so having a having a best-in-class WiFi experience there is key. We've also done a ton with convention centers with hospitality networks and hotels. We made an investment in a company [Blueprint RF, acquired by Cox over the summer] that's going to be bring best in class WiFi for commercial businesses. 

We’ve done some 5G trials, in conjunction with CableLabs. From a technical standpoint, we’ve been one of the leaders in small cell deployments, because of what we’ve been doing with some of our key partners and customers. The 5G trial was a fixed point to point [test]...just to prove out some of the technology and the performance.

JR Walden: We've been focused on in-home WiFi for many years. Maybe 60% of our customers pay us for a managed home WiFi solution. About 90% of our new customers do take that product. We have also been rolling out community WiFi, or metro WiFi...in a number of our communities, but not as aggressively as some of the big guys as we tend to have more low-density markets. I’m not necessarily convinced there are any business models around that. The theory around that is it's a customer affinity [strategy]. But it's not super-expensive to do, so you don't have to gamble too much on that. 

In regards to getting into more of a mobile play, we certainly haven't announced any plans. We've certainly been looking at what options might be and things like 5G and CBRS or other kind of solutions might impact us, both as a B2B or wholesale kind of enabler, like we were with cell tower backhaul, but also potentially getting into the retail side. 

That's one of those areas we'd rather be a fast-follower, frankly, so I’ll root for Comcast or Charter or somebody to blaze a successful trail, and then maybe we'll be prepared to invest in that. 

MCN: What are you doing to make WiFi better or best in class?
Tony Werner: We’re committed to offering a fantastic Wi-Fi experience to our customers, and from our perspective, that means providing a combination of speed, coverage and control. When it comes to speed, our xFi Advanced Gateway is not just the fastest gateway we’ve ever built, we believe it is the best device available today anywhere in the world.

On coverage, we want our customers to have amazing online experiences wherever they go, in or out of the home. On the go, that means continuing to expand our network of more than 18 million Wi-Fi hot spots, and at home, it’s a combination of our world-class gateway, and our forthcoming pods, which will give customers who want it a powerful Wi-Fi mesh network that can blanket any size home with great Wi-Fi. Finally, on control, we really believe xFi is a game changer. We launched it in May to more than 10 million devices, and the response we’ve seen has been tremendous, both in terms of adoption, and customer satisfaction. Today with xFi, our customers can pause WiFi to their kids’ devices for bedtime or dinner (our most popular feature), track the activity of devices on their home networks, and troubleshoot when things go wrong.

In addition, as you know we’re big proponents of RDK-B, where the B stands for “broadband.” It’s similar intent to RDK-V, video, which is the core foundation of our X1 UI. RDK-B is piled with techniques and technologies to continuously improve WiFi experiences.

KH: On the residential side, our offering, called Panoramic WiFi with the tagline of "It's wall to wall fast," has had an excellent take rate from a customer perspective. NPS (net promoter score) is up significantly. It's a combination of having a better in-home device, a professional install and additional to make sure your signal strength, location, quality of service is what you want it to be inside your premises. 

DH: Our WiFi strategy focuses on both raw hardware capabilities, and the software we use to optimize for value and performance. Both solve for whole home connectivity. We are constantly evaluating hardware-related developments and standards to include in the equipment we deploy in customers’ homes.

Alongside that, we are focused on software developments (embedded and cloud-based) to optimize WiFi range, reliability and performance. That means channel optimization, air time fairness, band- and client-steering. We have a range of embedded software and cloud-based services going to market in 2017 and 2018.

We’re also looking at the best ways to give our customers the right equipment to ensure whole home coverage, from point-of-sale to care. This includes developing a mix of property profiling (size, fabrication etc.) and machine learning techniques.

Making WiFi better for our customers is very much about giving them visibility and control.

Tech Roundtable 2015 | Revving Up to ‘Web Speed’

Ensuring all the hardware and technology we’re using works in harmony, such that the customer can see it, configure, it, and personalize it. We’re doing this with our “Connect” app, which – in addition to allowing them to manage their mobile tariffs and access hotspots while on the go -- brings all of this to the customer. Whether it’s parental controls, guest WiFi access, speed tests, onboarding of powerline devices, resetting passwords. It’s all the things our customers would and should expect. Meaning WiFi that consistently works well, with control in the palm of their hand.

JR: We’re currently deploying 802.11ac Wave 2 in the home, which has impressively nerdy feature names, like beam-steering and multi-user operation. Bottom line, they make the signals behave better in a given (and often hostile) environment. We’re also actively testing the benefits of 802.11ax, which works in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectral areas and enables multi-gigabit speeds.

On top of that, we’re planning a 2018 deployment of cloud-based radio resource management, which is all about optimizing the WiFi experience -- it takes some of what’s traditionally been processed locally, and pulls it back into the network. And, we’re testing some distributed WiFi solutions, to expand indoor coverage.

MCN: Is 5G an opportunity for small cell and backhaul, or a threat to the last mile? (A little bit of both?)
JW: The business model [for 5G] kind of confuses me some. For the markets that Mediacom operates in, which are much lower density than maybe the average -- we're well below 50 homes a mile. Although we don’t have as many line-of-sight issues with many tall buildings, the reach of these very high frequencies are really going to limit their use in lower density markets. 

I realize that Verizon and others are talking about 5G...but it's starting to feel a lot like 3D, in that there's a ton of talk about it, but when you go and look at the engineering, this is not going to be like LTE. When 4G came along, it was really about enabling a new frequency and new, more efficient protocols. This is fundamentally a different architecture. You're not going to enable with this with macro towers; you're going to have to build a whole new network to do this. And it's going to cost a lot of money. I think they have the performance to compete with landlines, but I don't think they have the capacity...at any cost-effective rate to really compete with landline. 

JR: It’s both, but probably more of an opportunity for backhaul. I mean, in rural areas, or very non-dense areas, having a wireless option, vs. wired, may make sense. We’re testing 5G for both, but to us it looks better for fixed use cases. That’s because millimeter wave comes with very large channel sizes, that can offer very high bandwidth -- but at those frequencies, propagation can be really challenging. Anything in the line of sight -- a tree, a building -- can mess things up.

DH: We don’t see 5G as a threat to the last mile. For starters, the economics aren’t there, at least in the foreseeable future. Plus, a 5G last mile will not offer the performance equivalent to fiber rich and deep access networks.

Spectrally, 5G performance will require larger bandwidths, which implies higher frequency spectrum and the use of advanced radio technologies, such as Massive MIMO or coordinated multi-site transmissions.

Higher spectral bands imply denser deployments of radio access nodes (smaller cells) with more backhaul locations, so for sure there are opportunities to scale backhaul revenues here.

When asked what a good coverage 5G access network might look like, I often point to one of our cable access maps showing our WiFi hotspots.

Ultimately, it’s not a question of 5G or cable access in the last mile. More, it’s a question of how will 5G radio access and fixed, fiber-rich cable access complement each other. Just like how unlicensed WiFi radio access compliments fixed cable access today.

KH: It is a little bit of both. From a technical perspective, we're taking advantage of some of the small cell opportunities.  

#NYCTVWK: ‘B&C’ Hall of Fame, VR 20/20 Kick Off Fifth Annual Event|Register Here

Liberty Global has launched the Connect App, an app and unified interface that enables  customers to automatically access the operator’s 10 million hotspots when they are in and out of the home.

The app, which should help customers keep their cellular data usage in check, is being offered for no added cost to UPC customers in Switzerland and Austria. Liberty Global expects to launch the app to its other markets by early next year.

In addition to auto-connecting to Liberty Global’s WiFi network, the app also provides monitoring tools so customers can scan for the strongest signal and know which devices and users on the account are connected. The app also lets customers share their home WiFi password with guests via WhatsApp or a dedicated QR code, monitor their data usage, and restrict access to the internet at specific times of the day.

To help spread WiFi to all corners of a customer’s home, the app also provides instructions on how to install and connect WiFi modems and boosters.

Liberty Global is debuting the app for iOS and Android mobile devices, and follows the debut of a Connect Box, a modem/WiFi gateway that has been deployed to more than 5 million homes.

Liberty Global is the latest MSO to introduce a customer-focused WiFi management tool, coming on the heels of Comcast’s ‘xFI’ platform.

RELATED: Comcast Launches ‘xFi,’ Invests in Plume

Liberty Global released this promo about the new app:

“From installing their router to checking their monthly mobile usage, this app really puts our customers in the driver’s seat,” Doron Hacmon, Liberty Global’s chief product officer, said in a statement. “Providing all these features within one innovative app means our customers get the most out of all the services we offer, both in and out of the home. This is just the beginning and we will continue to add even more features and functionality to ensure the app provides a range of great, up-to-date connectivity services.”

Juniper Networks said Liberty Global will use its vMX platform to support a network functions virtualization (NFV) effort at the cable operator, which serves about 20 million customers across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and manages more than 10 million WiFi access points.

Juniper said the deployment marks a NFV-based approach, as Liberty Global will use the vendor’s vMX, billed as a software-based, virtualized MX Series  Universal Edge Router that runs on off-the-shelf x86-based servers, across its footprint. 

Using the vMX as a “virtual route reflector” will help the operator scale its control plane by spinning up new ones on an on-demand basis, they said.

"Virtualization solutions streamline our infrastructure, our operations environment and our global business outcomes,” Andy Grotzke, VP of core network strategy and engineering at Liberty Global, said in a statement. “While our first NFV deployment is for virtual route reflection, we are also evaluating the vMX to rapidly add network capacity and new customers. The ability to leverage a broad set of virtual routing capabilities is very important to Liberty Global as it will enable agile service innovation and increased operational efficiency."

Liberty Global is an existing Juniper customer that uses gear such as its MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers and PTX Series Packet Transport Routers.

TPG Growth, the growth equity unit of investment firm TPG, has partnered with John Malone’s Liberty Global to form a television production and distribution studio, Platform One Media.

TPG said it will fund its investment through Evolution Media, an investment partnership with CAA and Participant Media. Liberty Global will initially take a minority stake in the partnership. Additional terms were not disclosed.   

Platform One Media will curate, develop, produce and distribute scripted programming for the U.S. and international markets. Veteran television executive Katie O’Connell Marsh, former CEO of Gaumont Television, has been appointed CEO and will be spearheading the company’s activities.

“TPG Growth has a history of identifying and building companies, such as STX Entertainment, that can redefine their categories,” said TPG Growth founder and managing partner Bill McGlashan in a statement. “Working with our partners at Evolution Media, we look forward to leveraging our collective experiences and networks in the entertainment space to build this business with Katie and her team.”

While at Gaumont, O’Connell Marsh developed and produced drama series including NBC’s Hannibal, the Golden Globe-nominated Netflix series Narcos, and Hemlock Grove for Netflix. On the comedy front, she developed F Is for Family for Netflix and Gaumont, as well as the Emmy-winning 30 Rock while at NBC and the Emmy-winning Arrested Development during her tenure at Imagine.

Most recently, O’Connell Marsh was Head of Global Live Action Television for Dreamworks Animation, where she was tasked with launching the live-action television operation for the company.

Additional appointments to the Platform One Media executive team include:

• Courtney Conte, who most recently served as president of Slingshot Global Media, will be chief operating officer (COO) and president. Conte previously served as COO of BBC Worldwide Productions and co-president of Carsey-Werner. He has developed and produced numerous television series for Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS, UPN, The WB, BBC, HBO, Showtime, Nickelodeon and Lifetime.
• Elisa Ellis, who most recently served as the Head of Creative for the Live Action Television division of Dreamworks Animation, will be joining as chief creative officer. Before joining Dreamworks in 2016, Ellis was president of creative affairs & production for Gaumont Television. At Gaumont, she was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s series development and production including Hannibal and Narcos.
• Erik Pack will join Platform One Media as head of distribution & co-production based in London. Pack most recently served as President of International Distribution & Co-production at Gaumont Television. Prior to that, Pack was executive vice president of International Sales and Co-Productions at Power, a London-based production and distribution company. Previously, Pack was at Hallmark Entertainment for 12 years, where he structured output deals across Europe and Latin America.
• Neil Strum, who most recently served as head of business and legal affairs for Slingshot Global Media, will take on the same position at Platform One Media. Prior to Slingshot, he served as Executive Vice President at Metan Development Group, one of the only Western companies producing original TV content in China. Strum also served as senior vice president of the William Morris Agency where he forged new business models utilizing non-traditional financing for network production.
• Also working with the team is Julia Franz, former head of creative at ABC Studios, who will serve as a consultant for the new company.

"Platform One Media has the key ingredients Liberty Global values in a strategic asset: great leadership, a clear vision and aligned, well capitalized partners,” said Liberty Global choef programming officer Bruce Mann in a statement. “It also gives us the opportunity to work with world-class talent creating high-quality scripted programming which could potentially feature on Liberty Global’s pay-TV platforms in Europe. We are fortunate to have Katie O'Connell Marsh bringing her vision, drive and creative track record, and to be working with TPG Growth, who we view as a natural strategic partner.”

As part of its launch, Platform One Media has acquired the portfolio of development projects from Slingshot Global Media and retired the Slingshot brand.

TPG has been very active in the cable space recently, purchasing overbuilder RCN and Grande Communications in August 2016 for $2.25 billion and Wave Broadband in May for $2.4 billion.

“The explosion of original content globally is creating an opportunity for new, innovative, and diverse ways to engage audiences beyond the series itself,” O’Connell Marsh said in a statement. “With Platform One Media, and our partners TPG Growth and Liberty Global, we are perfectly positioned to develop and distribute compelling narratives that are artistic, meaningful and addictive by working closely with innovative, inspiring talent to bring to life their creative visions."

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries will be the first of two general session keynote speakers when the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts™ (ISBE), host SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017 on Oct. 18, in Denver.

Fries will discuss a wide range of topics during his keynote conversation, including how the convergence of wireline and wireless is helping to drive new business opportunities for pay-TV providers.

Fries joins another top cable executive – Charter Communications chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge – at the Cable-Tec Expo general session.  Rutledge will offer keynote remarks on the future of cable telecommunications and how network innovation will be a significant contributor to business results.

“With multiple industry organizations holding events during Expo Week, the eyes of the industry will be on SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017,” said SCTE-ISBE CEO Mark Dzuban in a statement.  “Mike Fries’ insights and vision will underscore the impact of technology innovation, seamless product deployment and SCTE•ISBE in helping all sectors of our industry achieve success in a rapidly changing marketplace.”

Under Fries, Liberty Global as grown to provide broadband, entertainment, voice and mobile services to 25 million customers in more than 30 countries. A founding member of the management team that launched the company’s international expansion over 25 years ago, Fries was named president and CEO of Liberty Global in 2005. Fries also serves as the company ‘s vice chairman, alongside founder and chairman Dr. John Malone.

“Technology and constant innovation are the keys to keeping our customers happy in this ever changing digital world,” Fries said in a statement.  “SCTE•ISBE and its Cable-Tec Expo play vital roles in delivering the education, the standards leadership and the technology advances that will make this happen.”

SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo will be held Oct. 17-20 at the Colorado Convention Center. Expo Week begins Oct. 17 with the start of almost four-dozen technical workshops, as well as the Cable TV Pioneers Annual Banquet and Class of 2017 induction ceremonies. Registration and additional information on registration options are available at http://expo.scte.org.

DENVER -- Liberty Global plans to introduce DOCSIS 3.1-based services in Q4 of 2017, but the expectation is to target those services to higher-end customers due to the current high costs of D3.1-based consumer premises equipment.

Those CPE costs are still too high to justify a broader rollout, Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s SVP and CTO, said Tuesday here at Light Reading’s Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference in a discussion with independent analyst and Multichannel News contributor Leslie Ellis.

For now, Liberty Global’s “bull’s eye” broadband service, for the mass market, is at about 250 Mbps downstream, he said. He said Liberty Global’s D3.1-based offering will likely offer speeds of 500 Mbps to 750 Mbps that costs an additional 10 to 15 euros more per month.

He said Liberty Global is well down the path of having its network ready for D3.1, but the economics of the service will hinge on better CPE pricing.

Factoring into that equation is the need for integrated D3.1 gateways that also require advanced WiFi and other home networking technologies that rival that of the DOCSIS silicon residing in the device.

RELATED: DOCSIS 3.1 Grappling with Gateway Gap

Once those CPE economics improve, Nair said he could envision a “phase II” of the rollout that includes a wider deployment.

But Nair also talked up a major priority at Liberty Global that includes new construction in areas where the company is not overbuilding another cable company.

He said Liberty Global has built new networks passing north of 2 million homes passed in the past two years, has  plans to build across another 1.7 million more this year in parts of Europe and Latin America, with another 2 million on deck for 2018. 

“We are putting money where our mouth is,” Nair said, noting that these aren’t trivial projects given their need for the ramping up of engineering, vendor support and construction contractors to pull it off. “We are putting actual facilities in the ground.”  

For those builds, Liberty Global is going with a mix of fiber-to-the-premises and fiber deep HFC networks that don’t put any amplifiers between the node and the home. The latter example, is also referred to as “node + 0.”

Nair also said Liberty Global is testing distributed access architectures that rely less on monolithic Converged Cable Access Platform chassis as electronics are moved closer to the edge of the network.

DAA is “not ready yet” but inching toward deployment, he said, adding that the operator will later look to add Remote PHY architectures.

Nair was also asked about Liberty Global’s embrace of OTT apps and services at the set-top box. He said Liberty Global has a “very good business relationship” with Netflix, which has already been integrated in set-tops in several Liberty Global service markets.

RELATED: Liberty Global: Netflix for All

He said Netflix has quickly become the top app on the MSO’s set-top box platform. In the Netherlands, for example, Netflix is followed by Videoland, another SVOD service, and YouTube.  

Nair Netflix makes for a good partner because they can spend more on content. “They live on a different set of economics than we do.”

Amazon is interested in integrating its OTT and SVOD content on MVPD set-top boxes, though it’s unclear if the company is nearing any agreements that would enable it to pull off what Netflix has already done on boxes distributed by Comcast, Liberty Global and TiVo’s array of cable operator partners, which includes Liberty-owned Virgin Media in the U.K.  

“Amazon is definitely open to those partnerships and to be fair, we haven’t done as much there as Netflix have done,” Alex Green, managing director of Amazon Video, said Thursday at the Cable Congress conference in Brussels, according to Bloomberg.

Green said Amazon does talk “to all sorts of players in the cable industry.”

“We would partner with almost anybody, but our interests have to be aligned,” Balan Nair, Liberty Media’s CTO, said at the event, the report added. “When our interests and Amazon’s interests are aligned, you’ll see them on it, but at this point there’s a reason they’re not on our box.”

Nair didn’t elaborate on any specific business or technology-related reasons that would keep Amazon off the MSO’s set-top platform, but Liberty Global does have a multi-year deal to offer Netflix on set-tops, and has also been offering access to YouTube on set-top boxes in certain markets.

RELATED: Liberty Global: Netflix for All

It's possible that some of Amazon's interests might not line up with certain MVPDs because Amazon is rumored to be developing a competitive OTT pay TV offering. Additionally, its Amazon Channels offering, available to Amazon Prime customers, sells subscriptions to services from premium programmers such as Starz, Showtime and HBO.

Still, Amazon’s apparent interest in set-top integration comes as MVPDs show a greater willingness to embrace OTT services, including Hulu’s SVOD service, on their set-top platforms.

RELATED: Sharpening The Aggregation Edge (subscription required)

Comcast, for example, also has plans underway to integrate Sling TV on X1 boxes (because of Comcast's interest in making Sling’s international programming available) as well as YouTube (but not YouTube TV, the OTT player’s coming virtual MVPD offering).

RELATED: Comcast to Stream YouTube on X1 Boxes

The 5G race is on.

Operators around the world are embarking on prestandard trials of 5G, an emerging, next-generation wireless technology that promises to deliver a jaw-dropping array of futuristic advances in communications: multi-Gigabit broadband speeds, innovative mobile services, the Internet of Things and such revolutionary applications as self-driving cars.

With its ability to tap into wide swaths of spectrum, 5G will deliver wireline-like multi-Gigabit speeds that could competitively upend the already shifting market of fiber- and cable-delivered broadband services. (See Translation Please.)

Though real-world service speeds are to be determined — providers are still working out the kinks — some early trials have shown the potential to deliver speeds of more than 30 Gigabits per second (on the extreme end), according to a survey of market activity from test and measurement firm Viavi.

That’s 30 times faster than the current gold standard of 1 Gbps delivered to residential customers by today’s all-fiber networks of ISPs such as Google Fiber, and by cable operators that have upgraded to DOCSIS 3.1. According to a recent Comcast estimate, a 1-Gbps connection would allow a consumer to download a 600-Megabyte TV episode in four seconds. Using that same estimate, a 30-Gbps link would allow a user to download multiple seasons of a TV series in that same short span.

RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES
For cable operators, 5G will be friend and foe. Though it could pave the way for new competitive entrants, the technology’s wireline backhaul requirements represent a potentially lucrative business-services opportunity for MSOs. 5G is also expected to play a role as cable operators pursue and expand their own mobile and wireless strategies.

The delivery date for full 5G is widely debated, but the current consensus expectation is that the technology will be ready for market-wide launches by 2020. Phase I of the standard should be completed by mid-2018, while phase II, which will add some incremental capability, is expected by the fourth quarter of 2019, with 5G-enabled smartphones anticipated to hit the market by late 2019.

“Between 2019 and 2022, we’ll see that sharp, aggressive launch of 5G,” Glenn Laxdal, head of network products for Ericsson North America, said.

However, the initial impact of the new 5G infrastructure will be felt much sooner, as prestandard and precommercial implementations enter the fray. Imagine fast, fixed wireless access services delivered to the home that are easier to execute, in comparison to 5G’s trickier mobile and IoT aspects.

Verizon Communications is hitting on that fixed access idea early, with plans to launch 5G precommercial Gigabit broadband trials in 11 U.S. markets by mid-2017. Those trials, which will involve “several hundred cell sites that cover several thousand customer locations,” will test how the technology performs in various topologies in areas including Ann Arbor, Mich.; Atlanta, Bernardsville, N.J.; Brockton, Mass.; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Miami; Sacramento, Calif.; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

Given its focus on Gigabit-class speeds, 5G will also need gobs of spectrum. One great place to look for that is in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. But there are some drawbacks, as mmWave requires smaller cell sizes than 4G and more of them in order to reach the Gigabit-class speeds and coverage 5G promises. Those mmWave signals are easily blocked by trees and buildings, so early 5G fixed wireless deployments will require good line of sight.

The good news for service providers is that 5G will work with both licensed spectrum, like what’s being set aside in the 28 GHz band and 37-39 GHz bands, but will also operate in unlicensed bands, like those available in lofty regions of 64-72 GHz.

Another area to look is the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band that is set for release. Laxdal said the use of beam-forming and beam-tracking with 5G, which points “beamlets” directly at a user’s smartphone, aims to ensure that such traffic does not interfere with WiFi traffic also operating in that band.

Jaime Fink, chief technology officer and cofounder of Mimosa Networks, said his company, which provides fixed wireless systems for thousands of ISPs, has experimented in those higher bands and has found that “perfect line of sight” is indeed required.

“I’m skeptical of it being a non-line-of-sight opportunity,” he said, noting that mmWave could work for very short range urban small cells and be useful for obtaining excess capacity that can expand and enrich the mobile network. Likewise, he said, mmWave could work across short-ranges on building rooftops.

And though 5G lab trials show promise in terms of supporting high speeds, “What is hard is delivering it en masse into neighborhoods … and that’s where it gets hazy,” Fink said.

Fink and others believe mmWave will need to be paired with services delivered in the sub-6 GHz bands that work better where foliage is present and in suburban markets.

Charles Cheevers, chief technology officer, consumer premises equipment at Arris, agreed that 5G will likely need to support a “dual-PHY” network architecture that taps mmWave with a fallback to sub-6GHz spectrum that doesn’t need direct line of sight.

AT&T will put some of those technical challenges to the test. It’s working with Nokia on a 5G fixed-wireless lab test that is streaming subscription over-the-top service DirecTV Now over a 29-GHz system using the vendor’s commercially available AirScale radio access platform.

AT&T, which is conducting the trial at its Middletown, N.J., facility, has said 39 GHz and the 28 GHz mmWave bands are “particularly attractive,” given the large amounts of bandwidth available there.

That idea falls in line with what some analysts expect. Strategy Analytics, for example, has said video is an “anchor” use case for 5G, arguing it could become a platform that could rival pay TV services delivered via cable, satellite and telco IPTV networks.

Even though 5G fixed wireless is an option being pursued by carriers like Verizon, the economics might not add up for other market entrants.

“It’s a tough proposition,” Cheevers said, noting that a newcomer would have to undercut the current provider in the market while also facing higher deployment costs.

Another challenge is the eye test, as any 5G fixed wireless setup will likely require an outdoor mount.

“The aesthetics are a problem, too, in order to win business from existing wired providers,” Cheevers said. “I think the cable industry is quite comfortable with the customers they currently have because of that dynamic.”

CABLE’S 5G OPPORTUNITY
While the competitive threat posed by fixed 5G is questionable, 5G’s need for small cells that must also be connected to rich fiber networks to backhaul all of that traffic is “where the cable operators come in,” Laxdal said.

Cable’s widespread broadband networks are also among the driving reason behind rumors that Verizon is interested in buying Charter Communications.

However, cable operators are also positioned to take advantage of other 5G use cases, including fixed wireless access in residential and business service areas where MSO wired networks have yet to reach.

Some cable providers could also take advantage of the future mobile use cases for 5G, as MSOs such as Comcast and Charter trigger and develop services fueled by mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals with carriers such as Verizon.

Those MSOs, which have mobile products in the works, have likewise started to show their 5G hands.

Charter, for example, is already conducting 5G tests, following up on its application for experimental licenses for the pilots from the Federal Communications Commission, company CEO Tom Rutledge said on the company’s earnings call in January.

“We intend to use these field trials as learning opportunities to provide us with better insight into the capabilities of our wireline network when attaching radios with high frequency licensed and unlicensed spectrum,” he said, noting that he views 5G as a capacity-enhancing play more so than a mobile service play.

Comcast, which plans to launch a mobile product by midyear, is also eager to explore the 5G waters, at least with respect to power and backhaul that can be supported by the MSO’s roughly 650,000 miles of plant.

“I think that 5G is an exciting evolution in the business,” Neil Smit, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in January. “We’re doing some testing right now. We think that it’s going need economical space, power and backhaul … We think that we’re well-positioned to participate in the 5G rollout, no matter how it happens, as a result of having all those assets in place already.”

Cheevers said the multiple-dwelling unit (MDU) market is one that’s wellsuited to 5G. Apartments and condominiums represent a simpler option that would let operators take advantage of facilities with good line of sight and buildings with access to fiber.

“If I was a cable operator, I’d look at the MDU acquisition [opportunity],” Cheevers said.

CableLabs, the cable industry’s R&D organization, has been heavily engaged with wireless, including work with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and as a board member of the MulteFire Alliance, which is eying 5G services in unlicensed bands.

“We are following 5G very actively … It’s on our radar,” Belal Hamzeh, vice president of wireless technologies at CableLabs, said, noting that nearly half of the organization’s global members are also mobile operators.

5G operators will need a pervasive infrastructure power and backhaul, which “aligns well with the cable infrastructure,” he said. “Having the cable industry involved in 5G should not be a surprise to anybody.”

But not all cable operators are sold on the promise of 5G. For one, Liberty Global, which operates both fixed and mobile service in Europe and other regions, is wary the returns won’t justify the capital requirements.

CAPEX CONCERNS
“We worry about that leap,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said last week at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain.

“We think 5G is actually at a crossroads,” he said, noting that capital requirements should be part of a 5G discussion that has centered on collaboration and cooperation. “It’s not predestined.”

Fries said he fears that such an investment might not be forthcoming, particularly in Europe, if the environment in which Liberty Global and others operate doesn’t become healthier, and if the continent’s mobile market doesn’t undergo a much-needed wave of consolidation.

“One hundred twenty operators vying for declining revenues is a difficult place to be in,” Fries said. By comparison, he said, the U.S. “has it right in many respects” when it comes to the number of mobile competitors vying for share.

“It’s going to be a difficult act here in Europe to see this 5G vision come to fruition if we don’t create a more stable competitive environment,” Fries said. “There are too many mobile operators in Europe today. It’s very difficult to see a return with that much competition.”

Amid that uncertainty, top cable technology suppliers are keying on this wireless shift and are adjusting accordingly.

Casa Systems, a vendor that has traditionally focused on products for hybrid fiber coaxial networks, has been expanding into mobile and wireless in recent years to match the pursuits of its MSO partners and as a way for the vendor to enter new markets. Of recent note, it added 5G-focused small cell products and management products to its portfolio.

Casa’s mobile-facing products are getting “considerable momentum” and now counts about 25 “customer engagements,” according to Andrew Gibbs, the company’s vice president of product management.

MSOs are in a great position to “be the dominant service providers going forward as 5G takes shape,” he said, noting that have the wired infrastructure to support and invest in small cell systems that serve schools, enterprises, hospitality venues and, later, smart cities.

Arris, another top MSO supplier that counts Comcast and Charter as top customers, is going deeper into wireless and mobile through a proposed $800 million acquisition that includes Brocade Communications’s Ruckus Wireless unit.

Arris CEO Bruce McClelland said the deal represents a critical, defining moment in the company’s history, as many of its MSO customers pivot into wireless and mobile services.

“If I’m right, I think we’ll look back at this five years from now and say, ‘Gosh, that was a great move,’ ” McClelland said. “It could take a variety of different forms, but I think at the end of the day they’re all going to be wireless operators.”

5G may enter the picture at Arris down the road, but early on McClelland expects the pending deal to initially focus on augmenting capacity for standard 4G LTE mobile applications.


SIDEBAR > 5G: Five Things to Know
The initial use case for “precommercial” 5G products will be Gigabit-class, fixed wireless broadband access speeds to the home.

The move to full 5G technology and more advanced use cases, such as mobility, support for the Internet of Things and low-latency apps like self-driving cars, aren’t expected to emerge on a widespread commercial basis until 2020.

5G is not the sole domain of carriers with licensed spectrum. It will operate in both licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

5G will rely partly on spectrum in the millimeter wave bands, which require short distances to deliver high speeds and good line-of-sight connections. Given that scenario, 5G operators will likely want to also employ spectrum in the bands below 6 GHz as a fallback.

5G is a wireless technology, but underpinning it with solid, wired backhaul networks will be critical. That’s a major opportunity for cable operators with massive fiber-rich networks, and could drive more M&A activity as mobile carriers seek important backhaul options.