North American cable operators are facing a steady decline in subscribers annually because of the widespread shift into fixed wireless and fiber optic broadband. Traditional cable providers are experiencing substantial competition as they find it harder to keep up with the current standard of telecommunications technologies.
“It’s really tough being a cable operator in the North American market right now, especially if you’re a Tier One and facing increased competition,” said Jeff Heynen, Vice President, Broadband Access and Home Networking, Dell’Oro Group. “If you follow the reported numbers in the financial statements, you’re seeing the largest operators reporting net broadband subscriber declines or the lack of additions, and a lot of that is due to significant fixed wireless access competition at the moment, but certainly also coming from the increase in footprint and expansion from fiber overbuilders.”
Fiber Optic networks provide reliable, low-latency connections that are future-ready and up-to-date with current technologies, making them the new choice in broadband connectivity. Providers will have to decide to move from DOCSIS 3.1 (the current iteration of the telecommunications standard known as Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) to future versions of DOCSIS, or to convert to fiber.