Investor interest in fiber hot as 'open access networks' come into focus

There's no shortage of topics in the world of broadband these days. Fiber network M&A activity and upgrades have not slowed down. Billions of dollars are flowing into rural broadband. Cable operators are considering multiple paths forward on their access network upgrades amid flagging broadband subscriber growth. Meanwhile, fixed wireless access (FWA) seems to be all the rage. 

To cover that ground and help analyze those various-but-related-topics, two cable industry vets, David Strauss and Jay Rolls, now execs at Broadband Success Partners, recently joined the Light Reading Podcast. Broadband Success Partners, a company founded in 2017, has completed more than 40 technical due diligence engagements from about 25 clients, including a growing number of them outside the US. Heading into 2023, the company is also exploring how it might bring its expertise to the public sector. 

"When you consider the $65 billion of infrastructure funding – broadband funding – that's coming down the pike here, perhaps there's an opportunity. We're just exploring it at this stage," David Strauss, co-founder and principal of Broadband Success Partners and an exec formerly of Lightpath, Comcast, AT&T and Sprint, explained.

Meanwhile, investor interest in fiber "is very strong and not abating," says Rolls, an exec who previously held top engineering slots at Charter Communications and Cox Communications, and now serves as CTO of Broadband Success Partners. "I would even say it might be a little stronger than we saw six months ago." 

And Broadband Success Partners is seeing the notion of the "open access network," a model already somewhat popular in Europe, get more traction and interest in the US.  

You can download a lightly edited transcript of the podcast here. If you want to skip around and listen, here are a few topics discussed during this podcast:

• Background on the market focus of Broadband Success Partners and the number of M&A-related due diligence projects completed so far (0:50) 
• On the opportunities emerging outside the US and, within the US, the potential to engage with the billions of dollars being freed up to bring broadband to unserved and underserved areas (4:15) 
• An update on the current level of investor interest in fiber, and how the notion of an "open access network" built on fiber is becoming an emerging topic in the US (6:45) 
• How active Ethernet, not just PON, is making waves in the world of fiber access networks (9:50) 
• How in-home services, such as managed Wi-Fi, are becoming increasingly important attributes for broadband service providers that are trying to differentiate beyond speeds, feeds and pricing (11:30) 
• A discussion on the various options available to cable operators as they pursue what's next on the access network – DOCSIS 3.1 enhancements, future DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades or overbuilds based on fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology (17:00) 
• An update on potential pricing for DOCSIS 4.0 network upgrades (22:00) 
• As cable faces slowing broadband subscriber growth, what's more important: keeping prices and margins steady amid that slowdown, or driving promos that can rekindle subscriber growth? (27:00) 
• How fixed wireless is factoring into the discussion, particularly in rural areas (31:45)

—Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading

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