Here’s how cable giant Comcast is thinking about fiber

Comcast is in the midst of a massive overhaul of its network, rolling out mid-split upgrades and plotting the launch of DOCSIS 4.0 in the second half of 2023. But while Comcast remains firmly in the cable camp, Cable EVP and Chief Network Officer Elad Nafshi said there is a place for fiber in its future. And, he said, it’ll soon provide a more in-depth glimpse of what that future looks like. To be clear, there’s already a ton of fiber in Comcast’s network. According to Nafshi, Comcast’s nationwide backbone network – which it calls the core network – is all fiber. Most of its access network is also composed of fiber. As the operator upgrades its network with distributed access architecture (DAA), Nafshi said the access network is transitioning from analogue to digital fiber and to a new virtualized architecture delivered via a virtual Cable Modem Termination System (vCMTS). That means customers will receive “digital fidelity all the way to the home,” improving both the quality and resiliency of Comcast’s service. That transition to DAA architecture is also opening the door for Comcast to offer fiber-to-the-home on a larger scale. In terms of where it sees fiber fitting into its footprint, Nafshi said rural areas are the most likely target. While that might seem counterintuitive given all the talk of how costly fiber is upfront, Nafshi said using fiber in those areas means Comcast doesn’t have to deploy as many active components in the network, which would be even more expensive.