Reevaluating the cable-fiber rivalry: Much ado about nothing?

An unsurprising theme at Fiber Connect 2023 was executives from the fiber industry dragging its cable counterpart. For example, AT&T Fiber’s EVP Chris Sambar said, “don’t ask cable about symmetrical speeds, they don’t even know what that means.”  Derek Kelly, Lumos’ VP of market development, went as far as to say that “fiber is always the answer,” and suggested cable alternatives will not stand the test of time. But with all this talk about fiber versus cable, is the rivalry being overplayed? Over the last seven years, the definition of a "served location" has evolved significantly, with required internet speeds progressing from 4 Mbps upload and 1 Mbps download speeds to the current Federal Communication Commission threshold of 25/3 Mbps. Kelly highlighted that as $42.5 billion is set to roll out through the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, relying on investments in fiber will provide stability over the next 15 years. While acknowledging the need for funding in areas without even cable access, Kelly noted another large-scale program after the BEAD initiative is unlikely. Kelly noted Lumos defines “unserved being no cable, underserved means they're stuck with cable. And then there's everyone else that has life-changing fiber,” adding “So we don't care about speeds at this point.” Fiber execs mostly targeted cable’s “Achilles heel,” Jay Lee, CTO of ATX Networks, said, which is lacking symmetrical speed capabilities. But he noted cable operators are “right in the throes” of upgrading their networks to get to full DOCSIS 3.1, and that high-split type of architecture will allow them to achieve competitive speeds in the upstream.