Cable giant Charter is building hundreds of thousands of fiber passings this year

Charter Communications has talked a lot recently about its rural expansion plans. But what it hasn’t drawn attention to is the fact that most - if not all - of its planned rural passings will be delivered with fiber. The operator originally announced its rural build plan in 2021 after the close of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. All told, it said it was planning to spend $5 billion – including $1.2 billion in RDOF subsidy money – to reach 1 million rural locations across 24 states over the coming years. Since that time, it has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in additional grant money for rural builds in several states. Charter CFO Jessica Fischer said that 120,000 of the 200,000 rural passings Charter added in 2022 were subsidized. Charter plans to step up the pace of its subsidized build to 300,000 locations in 2023. While Charter has been building around 15,000-20,000 new passings per month, Fischer noted it is hoping to end 2023 at a rate of 30,000. While she didn’t outright state what technology Charter is using for its rural builds, an operator representative said that all of its RDOF builds will be fiber-to-the-home. Fischer said the vast majority of its rural builds in 2023 will be RDOF projects. Fischer also noted Charter is achieving significant penetration and average revenue per unit (ARPU) in its rural build territories. Specifically, she said it’s been able to hit around 40% penetration within 6 months after construction, with ARPU coming in over $100 as customers bundle voice, video, and mobile service with their broadband connections.