FWIW, thread, here's a recent development that is sure to influence how cable modem access is deployed by Adelphia within the City of Los Angeles. See calendarlive.com
This article, which was published in yesterday's paper, perhaps reveals the underlying concerns of Adelphia, & why its decision to deploy cable modem access to its City of LA subscribers may very well be put "on hold."
If anything, the open access debate, will cause to Adelphia to invest less, rather than more, in upgrading its existing plant. Adelphia, as you know, has its own high-speed Internet access service known as PowerLink, but affectionately referred to as "PowerStink" by its current subscriber base. It is my premise that S-CDMA modems are excellently suited for deployment in the more "poor communities" of the City, where it is unlikely the franchised MSO is going to be motivated to deploy large amount of capital in a fiber upgrade. RCN, FWIW, is presently negotiating with the City to deploy it HFC architecture, most preferably in the less "poor communities" communities of the City. As you can surmise, this is going to be politically charged debate going forward over the next 12 months.
ATHM, which is doing the network upgrade work for ADLAC here in LA, is scheduled to turn over its network, & the operations thereof, to the PowerLink folks when the agreement with ATHM, which ADLAC inherited from CTYA, expires next year. The word I hear is that the ATHM-ADLAC relationship is not the best & that it is only causing problems in the upgrade of ADLAC's LA assets. Take this FWIW, but if you were ATHM, where would you want to allocate your resources & best talent today?
So, when I reported that the decision to deploy S-CDMA modems was put "on-hold," it did not necessarily mean that S-CDMA modems would not necessarily be deployed here, but that there is so much uncertainty as to exactly what ADLAC will do or not do at this point in time in light of franchise license renewal next year, that to presume one modem vs. another at this point in time is premature.
As some of you may have noticed, recently the Cox family, of Cox Communications, has expressed an interest in ADLAC. But then again, so has Charter & a few others. Is Adelphia the kind of MSO that wishes to open up its pipes & allow others to compete with its PowerLink service? I dunno, but I do know that ADLAC is no AT&T, & that such a condition of license approval WILL have influence on its response to future inquiries to purchase its assets. |
