Is cable approaching a tipping point on PON?

Описание: Guest: Jay Rolls, chief technology office, BSP
Release Date: 2/24/2026

Cable operators are turning to fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) in the vast majority of their greenfield network builds, including "edge-outs" to adjacent areas and government-subsidized rural areas. But what about their widely deployed legacy hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks?

While it's clear that tier 1 cable operators such as Comcast and Charter Communications are going with DOCSIS upgrades in those areas, there are still some outliers. Optimum Communications, for example, is pushing passive optical network (PON) overbuilds in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, but it's going with DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades in its more rural (former Suddenlink) systems. And in the UK, Virgin Media O2 is also going with fiber overbuilds due largely to the favorable economics enabled by access to existing conduit systems.

Fiber becomes a 'strategic imperative'

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to the future of the HFC network, but the trend is pointing toward PON among some tier 2 and tier 3 operators as they analyze the capital and operational benefits, according to Jay Rolls, the chief technology officer of BSP, a company that conducts due diligence on various types of broadband network transactions, including many that are focused on fiber.

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