The CableLabs Strategy team, collaborating with our Technology team counterparts, develops Key Business Questions (KBQs) specifically focused on strategy and impact on the bottom line. These strategy KBQs provide a solid strategic underpinning to the innovations in the Technology Vision, and they can distill our members’ opportunities and challenges as they make critical technology decisions and investments.

Considering the various technology options available for access network upgrades — combined with evolving consumer needs and exciting opportunities created by technology innovations — now is the right time for CableLabs' member operators to leverage these KBQs to inform the analyses we produce for our members. By developing strategic questions that are tailored to their organizations' unique goals, members can position themselves for long-term success.

Strategy KBQ Goals

Strategy KBQs align the Strategy team’s work with the needs of our individual members, ensuring maximum impact with focused CableLabs resources that can complement member companies’ existing strategy teams. In this way, CableLabs can help inform the critical strategic decisions that members make on innovations and technologies. The strategy KBQs enable our members’ boards, executives and execution-level leaders to make decisions and take actions for long-term success.

CableLabs offers our members optionality both in technologies and in strategies. The strategy KBQs don’t seek one-size-fits-all answers; rather, they lead to a flexible set of analyses that members can tailor with us according to the particulars of their businesses, markets, competition and goals.

Strategy KBQs in the Real World

The CableLabs Strategy team has been carefully distilling strategic issues for network evolution into strategy KBQs like these:

• How will peak bandwidth demand grow in the future and what are the implications for capacity planning and product development?
• What are the economic and performance comparisons of the access network technology options (HFC, FTTH, Wireless) for cable operators?
• How do low earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband economics scale with increased capacity, increased usage and increased subscribers?
• How do Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband economics scale when adding loaded spectrum to meet demand for increased usage and subscribers?

Each strategy KBQ comes with a cascade of relevant questions that addresses issues at different layers within a member’s organization, such as strategy, product and engineering. The operator can use the analyses driven by KBQs to inform critical decisions and operational actions.

How can members apply strategy KBQs and the analyses that answer them? Here are some examples:

• Knowing peak demand requirements for 2035, operators can design their broadband access networks and deploy technologies to meet the requirements specific to their markets, instead of investing purely in greater capacity for capacity’s sake.
• Knowing the options for product positioning, such as low-cost, no-frills provider or differentiated high-end provider, and how different network technologies satisfy those positions, operators can make decisions on how to position their offerings most successfully in their markets.
• Knowing revenue impacts together with total cost of ownership that results from positioning options, competition, and broadband access network technology choices, members can form a solid view of the economic returns specific to their markets for different technological investments.

No two broadband access networks are alike — we’ve searched for the “typical network” and found there is no such thing! The same is true for the answers to the strategy KBQs; while answers may be similar, there will be no one-size-fits-all strategy for cable operators. Members can utilize strategic insights from CableLabs, addressing a range of results from different choices, to develop the answers that are right for their markets.

Translating to Action

CableLabs has structured Winter Conference 2025 to focus on the six Technology Vectors. In each session, members can learn more about the Technology Vision and Technology Vectors, and they can obtain a preview of the strategy KBQs for each Technology Vector. Panelists will share their differing perspectives on technology choices, future use cases and key business questions.

Just as our members’ markets are always evolving, the strategy KBQs will also evolve. Members can contribute to refining the strategy KBQs going forward, just as with the Technology Vision and Technology Vectors.

The era of DOCSIS®️ 4.0 networks has arrived, and the technology is providing a cost-effective upgrade option and competitive choice for cable operators on their path to symmetric multi-gigabit services.

Considering this, CableLabs has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the financial implications associated with deploying and operating different access network technologies. More specifically, our analysis examines the total cost of ownership (TCO) for different upgrade paths for DOCSIS 3.1 low-split on hybrid fiber coax (HFC) access networks — including both DOCSIS over HFC and passive optical networking (PON) over fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) upgrade options.

In short, we find merits for both. The full results of our extensive analysis are outlined in a CableLabs strategy brief, available exclusively for CableLabs members. Members can register for an account here.

A Robust Analysis

It’s a good time for industry operators to consider different upgrade options, but it’s necessary for them to step back and look at the bigger picture when it comes to cost. Of course, it’s not as simple as tallying up the costs of construction and new equipment, or only adding up power and maintenance costs.

Our calculations, which we’ve continually refined over the past several years, include all these considerations and much more, making this analysis as comprehensive as possible — and more thorough than most public estimates.

Using real-world, anonymized data from CableLabs members, our robust calculations create a single metric to effectively compare access network options.

A Flexible Model

Our analysis doesn’t provide a one-size-fits-all answer for operators considering an upgrade, but it can help inform their decisions when combined with financial objectives, existing network structure and the competitive landscape. This model will continue to evolve, and we’ll explore additional cost-related network upgrade issues in future strategy briefs.

Are you a CableLabs member operator curious to know what our analysis would reveal about your company’s upgrade options? We invite you to reach out and let us customize our analysis to your company’s needs. Read our strategy brief, "Economic Comparison of HFC and FTTH Access Networks," and connect with us for a walk-through of our findings.

For more about revenue impacts related to upgrade options, I recommend the Bandwidth Usage, Market Monitor and Discrete Choice Modeling reports — all available to CableLabs members.

Click the button below to register for a CableLabs account and gain access to the strategy brief.

If you attended SCTE Cable-Tec Expo last month in Denver, you likely heard quite a bit about DOCSIS® 4.0 technology. In many sessions, on the Expo show floor and in countless conversations in between, the message was loud and clear: The era of DOCSIS 4.0 networks is here.

While we were hearing about the technology at Expo, the world’s first DOCSIS 4.0 network services were being introduced to customers just down the road in Colorado Springs. The new services from Comcast offer symmetric speed tiers of up to 2 Gbps downstream and upstream.

The Colorado Springs launch and subsequent deployment this week in Atlanta mark an exciting leap forward for cable operators and vendors in their path toward enabling a powerful 10G future. In addition to delivering faster symmetrical speeds, the 10G network will offer more reliability, lower latency and enhanced security.

Cable-Tec Expo offered proof that DOCSIS 4.0 technologies are ready to provide cable operators with what they need to begin offering 10G services. Online streaming of many Expo sessions is available to attendees through November 20, but I’ve recapped some of my most valuable takeaways below. What were you most excited to hear about? Leave a comment below to join the conversation.

Cost-Effective Upgrade Paths

Vendors and operators showcased product developments for cost-effective DOCSIS 4.0 technology upgrades, making upgrading existing hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks an attractive and competitive choice compared with expensive fiber upgrades. Comcast demonstrated modular DOCSIS 4.0 full-duplex amplifiers and nodes, allowing for easy field upgrades. Operators also demonstrated services that combine DOCSIS 4.0 modems and DOCSIS 3.1 network gear, enabling new fiber-like speed tiers while phasing plant investment.

A Growing Ecosystem

Cable-Tec Expo highlighted a vibrant DOCSIS 4.0 technology ecosystem with the demonstration of a wide variety of nodes, amplifiers and customer premises equipment (CPE), which either have been announced or are available now. MaxLinear announced its Puma8 Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD) chipset for DOCSIS 4.0 technologies, creating silicon choice for the ecosystem.

Flexibility and Interoperability

Exhibits at Expo demonstrated vendor and operator flexibility and growing efforts throughout the ecosystem to minimize complexity. Broadcom and Comcast announced a combined ESD/Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) chipset for DOCSIS 4.0 technologies, enabling operation in both modes and with embedded AI and ML capabilities to improve network maintenance. Vendors showcased modular nodes that give operators more options by enabling both DOCSIS technology and passive optical networking (PON) services in the same service groups.

AI and Machine Learning

It’s no surprise that AI and ML played a significant role at the conference. Vendors and operators are leveraging the technologies for proactive network maintenance and spectrum management to boost network reliability and efficiency.

The Future of 10G and DOCSIS 4.0 Technologies

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2023 demonstrated the readiness of DOCSIS 4.0 technologies, which offer cable operators a cost-effective and rapid pathway to launch 10G services. These next-generation services are supported by a growing ecosystem and operational improvements that are made possible by advanced technologies like AI and ML.

The evolution toward 10G and its limitless potential begins with DOCSIS 4.0 networks. Welcome to the journey.