CED Magazine
At the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Tuesday, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said the company is looking toward a future that includes 10 Gbps symmetrical and a world of blended wired and wireline.
In greenfield construction, Rutledge pointed out that Charter is going all-fiber. However, in other areas the operator is “taking fiber deeper but not necessarily all the way.” He noted that through CableLabs efforts there’s a pathway to 10 gigabit symmetrical, and while Charter will have to make “some investments in our infrastructure” it won’t “have to rebuild it all.”
CableLabs DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex extension does indeed offer symmetrical 10 Gbps, and the spec should be completed in 2017. A white paper, “Full Duplex DOCSIS Technology over HFC Networks” by CableLabs’ Belal Hamzeh is available here.
Charter’s plans involve mixing that high-capacity wireline network with future wireless services. “We have more than 200 million devices wirelessly connected to our network,” Rutledge said. “We are a wireless company.”