DreamWeaver,
I once believed that the MSOs were well on their way to becoming another integrated form of common carrier, joining in the convergence parade that was characterized by the bubble era, by beginning to show signs of IP voice and VPN offerings. The things that they've done to continue in that legacy have been pretty much voice-oriented, plus some signs of becoming more involved with distribution of transmission lines in corporate parks and so-ho districts in ways that are not directly tied into their cable tv operations. Cablevision's Lightpath division could be used as an example that personifies this latter trait, after decades of catering to corporate types' data needs, with some others being those of COX and Comcast in some regions.
cablevision.com
But the MSOs, to the greatest extent, in my opinion, remain organizations where most content is kept and distributed on a local basis, and where aspirations towards a national data communications carrier status has been largely missing, with the exception of making Internet access available via cable modem.
Time Warner's TWT unit may be an exception to this observation, as I'm sure there are others, but I don't see the MSOs fulfilling any extensive ambitions on the national data carrier front, say, for the purpose of competing in national corporate level VPNs, VPLSs and MPLS networking capabilities, preferring, instead, to harvest their own walled-off markets. Comments and corrections are welcome.
FAC
frank@fttx.org |
