According to news reports, Charter Communications is now implementing a three-year "10G" broadband network upgrade plan that will significantly expand multi-gig broadband service availability and enhance the market's competitiveness. The reported goal of Charter's plan is to make 5 Gbps download speeds available to 85% of its geographic footprint and to make 10 Gbps download speeds available for its top tier service. Charter will be upgrading its existing coaxial cable broadband network by implementing DOCSIS 4.0 technology. And it is reported that Charter will spend $10.65 in total capital expenditures next year, with $6.5 to $6.8 billion allocated for its network upgrade.
Cable broadband provider's "10G" platform is a competitor to high-speed fiber broadband networks. Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long has written about the potential of cable's next-generation networks in his September 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "'10 G' Can Help Future-Proof Broadband Infrastructure" as well as in his October 2020 blog post, "Study Predicts that Cable '10G' Platform Will Generate Substantial Economic Benefits." Also, it is worth noting that cable networks are themselves fiber-laden. According to public comments filed by NCTA for the FCC's forthcoming 2022 Communications Marketplace Report, high-speed cable broadband networks "contain 550,000 route miles of fiber-optic cable. Using these fiber-rich facilities, data traveling to or from a cable customer is using fiber for 98-99% of the route."
Notably, Charter is reported to also have a plan to expand its geographic footprint in 2023 and beyond. It is reported that Charter is reaching an additional 1 million new locations, backed by funding from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. And Charter apparently has won grants from states for passing another 160,000 locations, with other potential grant awards soon to follow through programs such as the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Act (BEAD) Program. For these rural buildouts, Charter reportedly is increasing its capital expenditures over prior years.
These significate private network investments – albeit supplemented by subsidies – will help reach unserved and underserved areas. Congress, the NTIA, and the FCC ought to continue promoting a pro-innovation, pro-investment, market-oriented environment by avoiding unnecessary new network management regulation, seeking ways to remove or encourage removal of local barriers to construction of new and upgraded infrastructure, as well as by conducting close and coordinated oversight of the many broadband subsidy programs to ensure that dollars are targeted to truly unserved and underserved areas in American.
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