Windstream has upgraded the broadband speeds it can provide over its cable TV infrastructure in northern Georgia. The company says that about 71,000 subscribers now have access to data speeds as high as 300 Mbps on its Kinetic platform. Windstream…
Rural Cable
Rural Cable Company Midco Embraces Fixed Wireless, Targeting the “Donut of Discontent”
Midco may be best known as a cable company serving tier two and tier three markets that also provides broadband service using hybrid fiber coax/ DOCSIS architecture and technology. But since acquiring wireless internet service provider InvisiMax last year, Midco…
Cable ONE Fidelity Purchase Valued at $525.9 Million
Cable ONE’s plan to purchase Fidelity Communications, announced today, includes operations in Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri. Oklahoma and Texas. The Cable ONE Fidelity deal encompasses more than 5,100 plant miles and over 1,600 fiber route miles in a network that…
Shentel Big Sandy Broadband Deal Closes
Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) has completed its deal to purchase the assets of Big Sandy Broadband, Inc., a provider of cable television, telephone and high speed internet services in Johnson and Floyd counties in eastern Kentucky. Big Sandy, which has…
NCTC WEC Takeaway: Who Needs Video? We All Do Actually
At this week’s National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) Winter Education Conference (WEC) in Atlanta an interesting dynamic was on full display. Video, and its worth as a service for NCTC members, was called into question, with broadband identified as the…
CoBank: Deals are Driving Fiber Network Valuations Higher and Cable, RLEC Networks May Be Next in Line
Fiber network consolidation has driven up the value of fiber networks for strategic buyers and infrastructure funds, notes rural communications infrastructure financing company CoBank in a new report. As CoBank notes, though, the number of fiber networks available for acquisition…
Cable ONE Business Adds SIP Trunks Throughout its 19 State Territory
Cable ONE Business announced that it now has established Business SIP trunks throughout its 40-market, 19-state service territory. Cable One says that the SIP trunks will connect a customer’s onsite PBX to Cable ONE Business’ nationwide fiber-optic network, enabling business…
NCTC Philo Deal Provides OTT Option for Small Video Providers
The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) now offers video provider members a new option in over-the-top (OTT) video through a deal with Philo, providers of an OTT video offering originally launched in the college market. A Philo spokesperson declined to…
Qualified $2B CAF II Auction Bidders Range From Tier 1 Verizon, to Rural Telcos, Electrics, WISPs, and Everything In Between
More than 200 companies (220) have qualified to participate in the Connect America Fund II (CAF II) auction scheduled to begin in late July, including large incumbent carriers such as Verizon, Cox, Windstream, Frontier, Cincinnati Bell and Hawaiian Telcom and…
NCTA Touts Rural Cable Gigabit Successes
Rural cable gigabit success stories are highlighted in a range of new blog posts from NCTA – The Internet & Television Association. The success stories come from tier 2 and 3 cable companies such as Mediacom and Alaska’s GCI. The…
Pai Urges Small Cable CAF II Auction Bids; Will They Take Him Up on It?
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today urged small cable companies to bid for funding in the upcoming Connect America Fund (CAF) auction, scheduled to start in July. The CAF II Auction will award as much as $2 billion over 10 years…
ACA Survey: Retransmission Fees May Reach $19 Per Subscriber, Per Month by 2020
Retransmission fees are continuing to escalate and will go much higher in the next few years, according to smaller cable companies that are members of the American Cable Association (ACA). ACA members reported that they will be forced to pay…
