Also in today's roundup: Corning fiber growth, WOW broadband results and new FTTH deployments from Safaricom.
SpaceX postponed Sunday's scheduled launch of broadband communication satellite Amos-17 until Tuesday, at the earliest. Spacecom, an Israeli provider that will use SpaceX's satellite to deliver broadband to customers across Africa and the Middle East is watching closely. In 2016, SpaceX was set to launch Amos-16 for Spacecom when the loaded Falcoln 9 was destroyed, along with the satellite.
WideOpenWest (a.k.a. WOW!) saw a slight dip to $289.7 million for its second-quarter revenue, ended June 30, 2019, down a scant 0.5% from the 12-months prior period. Total subscription revenue for Q2 reached $266.4 million, a decline of $3.4 million or 1.3% year-over-year. WOQ2 2018. Likewise, high-speed data (HSD) revenue-generating units (HGU) grew 2.4% across 12 months, reaching 765,000 by the end of June 2019 compared with 58,800 in June 2018. (See WOW! Revenues Dip in Q2 Amid Reduction in TV, Phone Subs.)
Safaricom will extend its fiber-based network to 15,000-plus homes in Kenya over the next two months, offering half-off to new customers who sign-on in that timeframe. Today, that fiber-based service is available to 300,000 homes, the operator said, and connects about 107,000. Safaricom plans to extend into parts of Kisumu and Thika, Kizingo in Mombasa and Kinoo, Komarock and Ruaka in Nairobi. (See Safaricom Pumps Up Its FTTH Plans.)
ARRIS and TDS Telecom said they will work to deploy a new service called TDS TV+ later this year. The service is an Android TV set-top solution for the TDS Cloud TV Platform. The companies say the goal is to provide consumers with a simple, efficient and easy-to-use video solution that integrates third-party apps like Netflix. (See TDS Telecom Taps Arris/CommScope for Android TV Box .)
ARRIS and TDS Telecom plan to deploy ARRIS’s VIP6102W UHD IP set-top box, an Android model that features integration between the box, Cloud TV back-office, Tivo user interface, third-party apps and a voice-enabled remote control.
Corning reported last week that its core sales grew 8.2% to $2.986 million and its Optical Communications division is on track to grow about double the rate as the passive optical market. The fiber vendor said it expects strong growth thanks, in part, to CenturyLink's plan to use Corning fiber for an inter-city, ultra-low-loss fiber network buildout. (See CenturyLink Adds Fiber to Fuel Datacenter, Cloud Growth.)
In a flurry of activity throughout the week, Donald (DJ) LaVoy, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the US Department of Agriculture, and his team spent about $145.8 million in the non-urban or suburban areas of seven states.
Calix reported revenue of $120.19 million – up 4% – in Q4 2019, putting a bounce in the step of company president and CEO Carl Russo and a shine to Calix's ongoing transition from hardware vendor to a provider of platforms enabled by cloud, APIs and subscriber experience.
Looking to curtail e-waste and improve the bottom line, BT will require customers to return routers and set-top boxes, although subscribers will not have to pay a fee when they receive regular broadband equipment.
The industry standards organization is looking to ease operator pain from residential WiFi, while it also sees initiatives in connected home and other projects bear fruit.
Deploying DOCSIS 3.1 across its entire footprint gave Rogers Communications the ability to offer speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s,
contributing to a broadband segement that generated about 60% of the Canadian operator's $3.05 billion (US) in Q4 cable earnings.
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