Daniel Frankel

The top 16 US high-speed internet providers, covering 96% of the market, added 370,000 customers in the second quarter, off from the 480,000 added on a pro forma basis in the same period of 2018, according to new research from Leichtman Research Group. The dip is an anomaly for now—customers growth metrics were up for landline broadband suppliers in the first quarter. Cable operators added 532,211 high-speed internet users in Q2, LRG said, about 90% of what they added in the same period of 2018.

The Department of Justice reportedly talked to representatives from Comcast and Charter recently about filling the void of the fourth major US wireless carrier that would be created if T-Mobile and Sprint are allowed to merge. Apparently, as a condition for approving T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion acquisition bid for Sprint, the DOJ wants the Number 3 & 4 wireless companies to divest wireless spectrum and enable a fourth US major wireless carrier. For their part, Comcast and Charter both have nascent mobile services through mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreements with Verizon.

Charter Communications Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge explained why 5G isn’t an existential threat to cable’s connectivity business. “We have a better platform to deploy [5G] technology, I think, than the cellular industry does because we are fully distributed from a high-capacity wireline perspective,” said Rutledge. “If you think about what 5G is, it is small cells,” Rutledge added. “Small cells mean you needs lots of wired line connectivity to make the small cells work. We think we are actually in a better position to do that than traditional cellular companies.

A year after Mediacom paid an undisclosed sum to take over the cable system in Andalusia (AL) the town’s mayor is warning the operator that if he continues to hear complaints, Andalusia will shop for a municipal broadband provider. “For the entire time that I have been mayor, I have not received as many complaints about anything as I have received about the cable and broadband service from Mediacom,” said Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson. “Whatever it is that they’re doing here, they need to make some changes.”

[Commentary] Last week, Forbes contributor Rosyln Layton was fed up with what she saw as a lack of journalistic stridency in reports by FierceCable, DSL Reports, as well as numerous tech media publications, on a study (PDF) published by Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society concluding that municipal broadband was generally a better deal for consumers. Layton went on to accuse FierceCable of “blindly” accepting the Berkman study.

Charter Communications told the New York Public Utilities Commission (PUC) recently that it is ahead of schedule on a series of state broadband infrastructure improvements promised amid regulatory approval of its Time Warner Cable purchase two years ago. 

Despite tying a projected five-year capital expenditure figure of $50 billion to the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to roll back its net neutrality mandates, an analysis of Comcast’s capital expenditures (capex) reveals that the top US cable operator was on track to spend about that much even before the agency voted to deregulate. 

Deutsche Bank Analyst Matthew Niknam listed seven key benefits to the Comcast-Charter Communications partnership, which calls for the two companies to share wireless technology and best practices, as well as control each other’s major M&A endeavors in the wireless industry. Niknam then listed seven “opportunities” rendered by the deal:

1. It offers national scale across a fiber-dense network footprint covering 80% of the US
2. The two companies will share network technology, software, product development and operational investments and expertise
3. Each will dramatically increase its service footprint, allowing customers to reach across each other’s Wi-Fi networks, as well as any LTE or 5G network infrastructure built in the future
4. The deal offers collaboration on spectrum procurement and any future network design and buildout
5. It will enable both companies to better serve the business market with wireless services
6. It will provide better leverage and scale for procurement from vendors
7. It will extend the amount of retail service locations both companies can offer

Prices charged by cable operators for broadband services will double over the next several years, offsetting declines from broadband saturation and erosion of linear pay-TV services, says New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin. In a note sent out to investors, Chaplin noted that while cable operators continue to steal high-speed internet marketshare from telephone companies, cable companies' rate of Internet service provider customer growth is actually slowing. Chaplin said customer growth came in at 6.4% in the fourth quarter of 2016, down both year-over-year (from 6.9% in Q4 of 2015) and sequentially (down from 6.9% in Q3 of 2016).

[Commentary] NBC News released the results of a survey a few days ago showing that 49% of US consumers say they’re less likely to buy a product endorsed by the current US president. Despite the benefits AT&T and Charter might obtain from the Trump Administration, it might not make good business sense for these guys to fly too close to the sun. Not when he’s perceived as a black hole to more than half of the consumer base.

Indeed, captains of telecommunication industry need to understand that bedding with this administration could have serious long-term public-perception consequences. Just on an average Tuesday this week, the press secretary had to issue an apology for using a bad Nazi-era analogy. During Passover. If things were to get much worse, a CEO who got in too tight with the Oval Office could end up with a figurative public head-shaving.