Upstream demand driven by 'marketing,' not true usage, Charter CEO says

Charter Communications is upgrading its widespread hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks to support faster speeds. But the demand for lofty upstream speeds is not being driven by actual customer usage, according to CFO Chris Winfrey. "The upstream demand today is much more of a marketing campaign as opposed to any real product demand," said Winfrey. Upstream usage soared during the early stages of the pandemic as people worked and schooled from home, but downstream usage still exceeds upstream usage by a wide margin. However, fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) competitors have put a heavy emphasis on symmetrical, multi-gigabit speeds. Among recent examples, Frontier Communications launched symmetrical 5-Gig speeds across its FTTP footprint, a follow-up to its debut of symmetrical 2-Gig speeds last year. Charter will participate in the delivery and marketing of faster speeds over HFC under a multi-step "network evolution" plan that will provide multi-gigabit downstream speeds across the board alongside an initial focus on symmetrical speeds of 1 Gbit/s.