Just a couple months after our new member announcement for Millicom, we’re happy to report that yet another Latin American cable company—Megacable—is joining us. The timing couldn’t be better. As we geared up for our inaugural Latin America & Caribbean Summit in December, we relied on our CALA members to bring cable’s global 10G vision of universal high-speed Internet access and continuous connectivity to the areas they serve. And now that one of Mexico’s largest cable communications companies is onboard (together with Izzi Telecom), we’re looking forward to working with them to make this vision a reality in the near future.

About Megacable

If you live in Mexico, you’re probably familiar with Megacable, a TV, phone and Internet provider operating in 26 states and more than 350 municipalities, including Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, León, Veracruz, Hermosillo, Culiacán, Morelia, Querétaro and Torreón. The company’s fiber network, which passes 8.8 million homes, spans more than 61,000 km (that’s more than 38,000 miles) supported by nearly 22,000 employees. As of September 30, 2019, Megacable had grown to approximately 3.2 million pay-TV subscribers, 3.1 million broadband subscribers and 2.1 million telephony subscribers. At the close of Q3 2019, unique subscribers rose to 3.6 million, and revenue-generating units (RGUs) reached 8.4 million, up 7.1 percent compared with Q3 2018. RGUs per unique subscriber reached 2.3, continuing an upward trend.

In addition to its basic triple-play services, Megacable also creates and broadcasts exclusive content related to Mexican culture, tourism, news and entertainment on its own Video Rola channel, available live in certain parts of Mexico and the United States. In August, Megacable broadcast its first original series production on the Panico and Cine Mexicano channels, as well as on Megacable’s “Xview” its interactive video and on-demand platform. The 13-episode series is called “13 Minutos Antes de Dormir” (“13 Minutes Before Sleeping”) and features a number of Mexican horror legends, plus an original score. The company also caters to its business clients with a robust portfolio of services that includes the design and development of tailored information technology and equipment solutions.

Mega-Plans for the Future

Megacable’s future ambitions include improving and expanding its fiber optics footprint, as well as offering a whole new set of mobile services to its customers. Just this May, Megacable acquired another 1,370 km of fiber optics infrastructure through a deal with Axtel, increasing its residential and business subscriber base by 50,000. In November, Megacable began its journey to becoming a quadruple-play provider by venturing into the mobile business as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) under its new service “Mega 4.5G.” As part of its launch promotion in select cities, it has distributed more than 500,000 SIM cards with access to Megacable’s MVNO network absolutely free for 3 months.

This type of entrepreneurial spirit is essential to driving progress and helping people stay more connected to everything and everyone they love. Improving high-speed connectivity, whether wired or wireless, is key to realizing the 10G future where lightning-fast super networks will serve as a springboard for a whole new wave of innovation—not just in Mexico, but all around the world.

Welcome, Megacable!

Welcoming a new company to the CableLabs family always makes for an exciting day here at the office. Today, we’d like to introduce you to not one but three of our newest members:

• Millicom, one of the leading providers of cable, mobile and high-speed broadband services in Latin America
• Cablevideo, a local Argentinian TV and Internet provider
• Schurz Communications, a privately held company that owns a variety of regional U.S. broadband and cloud service providers

Millicom: A Company on a Mission to Help Growing Economies Reach Their Full Potential

Millicom operates under the TIGO brand in nine Latin American countries—Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay—building the digital highways that connect people, improve lives and develop communities. Millicom is driving connections that matter through the rapid expansion of its Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) and mobile networks with more than 147,000 km of fiber and a reach of 30 million households.

Passing more than 11 million homes today, Millicom’s 3.3 million HFC customers enjoy a variety of digital video services, including advanced personalization and viewing recommendations, together with high-speed broadband.

On the mobile front, Millicom’s 4G/LTE networks serve 37.2 million mobile customers. The company is now focused on converging its cable and mobile services, which would allow Millicom to deliver more compelling data-centric products to its rapidly growing customer base.

Cablevideo: Small Company with a Big Heart

Cablevideo began servicing the Santa Fe area of Argentina in the mid-1980s and has since expanded to Santo Tomé, Coronda, and other neighboring provinces. For the majority of Santafesinos, Cablevideo is synonymous with cable television, offering hundreds of channels, including on-demand and premium channels like HBO, as well as high-quality, reliable broadband Internet to local homes and businesses. Cablevideo also owns and produces content for three local channels that enjoy very high viewership among local residents.

Recently, Cablevideo has started to expand its operations outside Santa Fe and its provinces, laying fiber in areas such as Recreo that have never had cable or Internet. Because it is a local provider, Cablevideo is deeply embedded in local communities. Besides providing a variety of entertainment options, Cablevideo also offers job opportunities to local residents and free services to neighboring schools, nursing homes and hospitals. In June 2018, in preparation for the first winter cold in Argentina, Cablevideo joined forces with a local radio station to gather 5,000 blankets for 1,650 families who live in tin huts—proof that business is not always just about the bottom line.

Schurz Communications: A Family Business That Values Meaningful Connections 

Schurz Communications can trace its roots to 1872, when Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett founded a local Indiana newspaper called the South Bend Tribune. Schurz got into the cable business in 1968 in Hagerstown, Maryland, and owns four other locally operated broadband companies in Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota and Vermont that offer video, high-speed Internet and voice services to neighboring communities. Operating HFC, GPON and EPON networks, Schurz is providing advance digital services to more than 200,000 revenue-generating units (RGUs).

In addition to its highly successful broadband operations, Schurz is focused on the technology of information sharing, which safely facilitates human and geographic connections on a global scale. Through Otava, Schurz provides world-class cloud, colocation, data protection, disaster recovery, security and other professional services solutions to thousands of customers around the world. Schurz understands the value of data and is committed to protecting it in the cloud.

CableLabs Membership: Where Local Meets Global

Now that Millicom, Cablevideo, and Schurz have joined our ranks, they have access to our global CableLabs community that strives to achieve alignment and adoption of common technologies. Plus, they can take advantage of many members-only resources, such as:

• Exclusive access to our quarterly R&D reports, competitive assessments of innovation focus areas and more
• An invitation to members-only global events, plus other industry conferences, such as CES, where members share insights and best practices
• A behind-the-curtain look at the latest innovative research not yet available to the general public
• An opportunity to participate in working groups that drive industry standards in fiber, security, mobile, virtual networking and other innovative fields
• Access to state-of-the-art development and testing facilities for next-generation technologies

If you’re interested in becoming a CableLabs member and would like more information, please contact us by clicking the link below.

As we enter a new era of innovation, our networks must continue to stay ahead of both competition and customer demand. On 3-4 April 2019, join us for CableLabs Europe Conference 2019 as we explore challenges and opportunities for converging today’s technologies – and those that are “next” – into our fixed and wireless networks.

Why Attend

This free, members-only event puts you in contact with professionals who are adept at building tomorrow’s networks - today. These leaders and innovators are shaping network advancements throughout the European and U.S. cable industries.

What You’ll Discover

CableLabs Europe Conference is a two-day event with speakers, discussions and opportunities to ask questions to those in the know.

• 10G Vision: Learn how the 10G combination of speed, millisecond latency, and superior security at scale can meet consumer needs well beyond what they are currently experiencing.
• Strategies for Building 10G Networks: Listen to an expert panel’s strategic choices for delivering on the promises of 10G networks, such as Full Duplex DOCSIS technology, Node+X, extended spectrum and advanced fiber.
• Maximizing In-Home Wireless Opportunities: Discover how MSOs seize on opportunities to take Wi-Fi from black boxes to managed services, such as EasyMesh™, Wi-Fi PNM and more.
• Innovation Showcase: Meet companies that are breaking technology barriers and changing the landscape of the industry - diverse innovations include computer vision, machine learning, password-free high assurance authentication, rogue device mitigation, and personal data protection and privacy aligned with GDPR requirements.
•  Transatlantic Technology: Listen to and participate in policy and regulatory discussions surrounding key topics including 10G/ 5G connectivity and subscriber behavior in Europe, and how they relate to our innovative technologies.
• Mobile and Fixed Broadband - Infrastructure and Service Perspective: Discover how operators are looking at the relationship between mobile and broadband from both an infrastructure and service perspective.
• Growth Engines for Mature Markets: Europe has many advanced product offerings in converged wired and wireless networks despite increasing levels of complexity. Learn from experts discussing what needs to be fixed, as well as possibilities in future customer service and offerings.
• CTO Roundtable: Leveraging the success of last year’s highly popular roundtable, hear what key CTOs on both sides of the Atlantic are doing with their networks.
• Fireside CEO Chat: Phil McKinney, CableLabs President and CEO, will lead a discussion with industry CEOs ranging from business strategies to competition to consumer demand.

Event Info

When: 3-4 April 2019

Where: London, England

Hotel: St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel
Euston Rd., Kings Cross,
London NW1 2AR, UK

Who: CableLabs Members

We are very happy to announce that VodafoneZiggo just became the 62^nd member of our global CableLabs family. VodafoneZiggo is a Dutch joint venture formed from the union of two very well-known brands:

• Ziggo, the #1 cable network and entertainment provider in the Netherlands owned by Liberty Global, the largest international TV and broadband internet company; and
• Vodafone Netherlands, the #2 mobile operator in the Netherlands owned by Vodafone Group, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies.

VodafoneZiggo provides 9.7 million fixed line services to its customers with nearly 4 million video, over 3 million broadband and 2.5 million telephone services, and provides mobile services to nearly 5 million customers. The joint venture now provides converged video, broadband and mobile services to over 1 million households just 18 months after launching its quad-play offering.

Why VodafoneZiggo Is a Perfect Fit for the CableLabs Family

VodafoneZiggo’s focus is an echo of our own future vision for the global cable industry – connected networks. By joining forces, VodafoneZiggo’s parent companies embarked on a path toward a seamless and reliable connectivity between networks, devices, and most importantly, people. Beginning in 2020, VodafoneZiggo will begin providing a 'network of the future' with converged mobile and fixed connections.

Liberty Global announced its next-generation TV entertainment platform, ‘Horizon 4’, in 2018 featuring a superfast set-top box with 4K Ultra HD picture quality and a remote control with voice capabilities. VodafoneZiggo is currently testing 'Horizon 4' and is working towards a commercial launch in the first half of 2019. DOCSIS 3.1 technology, the CableLabs innovation enabling multiple gigabit per second broadband speed, has been successfully piloted in the Utrecht region of the Netherlands enabling VodafoneZiggo to proceed with a nationwide 1 Gigabit network rollout by 2020.

As a next step in the realization of its network of the future, VodafoneZiggo has increased the bandwidth of a part of its mobile network and, as a result, download speeds of more than 1 Gbps are now possible. Mobile devices supporting these download speeds are expected to be broadly available in 2019. The joint venture is also carrying out 5G tests, working on innovative IoT solutions to make cities safer and more sustainable.

Benefits of CableLabs Membership

We believe that CableLabs’ international reach will help companies like VodafoneZiggo and many others achieve the technological alignment and global scale needed to ramp up the pace of innovation and drive down costs. A CableLabs membership gives them a direct link to the rest of the industry through which they can share experiences and collaborate to better serve their customers.

Other membership benefits include:

• Exclusive access to our quarterly R&D reports, competitive assessments of innovation focus areas and more.
• An invite to our annual Summer Conference and other member-only global events, plus other industry conferences, such as CES.
• A behind-the-curtain look at the latest innovative research not yet available to the general public.
• An opportunity to participate in Working Groups that drive industry standards in fiber, security, mobile, virtual networking and other innovative fields.

If you’d like to learn more about CableLabs member benefits and how to apply, please click the link below.

CableLabs is excited to welcome our 60^th and 61^st members to our global cable industry family: Liberty Latin America and Packerland Broadband.

Liberty Latin America

Continuing our commitment to the international cable community, we welcome Liberty Latin America (LLA) to CableLabs. LLA split off from Liberty Global, also a member of CableLabs, in January 2018 and launched as an independent, publicly-traded company. LLA is the leading telecommunications company in Latin America serving 20 consumer markets and over 30 B2B markets with operations in Chile, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and beyond. As of June 30, 2018, LLA has 5.3 million RGUs (video, broadband and fixed-line telephony subscribers), together with 3.5 million mobile subscribers.

LLA operates a network of over 50,000 kilometers of sub-sea and terrestrial fiber that connects over 40 markets in the region, providing connectivity both within and outside its operating footprint. LLA is led by Balan Nair, President and CEO, an experienced and proven business executive with more than 20 years in the telecommunications industry. He has been a part of the Liberty family of companies since 2007, most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Liberty Global.

Packerland Broadband

From the heartland of America, we welcome Packerland Broadband, a division of CCI Systems which is 100% employee-owned. Established in 2007, Packerland provides video, broadband and voice services to 9,000 customers in 60 communities throughout northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Packerland uses a variety of access technologies to deliver residential services, including traditional HFC, FTTH, fixed wireless and satellite resale. As of June 2018, Packerland Broadband offered its UltraConnect gigabit service to 40 of the 60 communities it serves – bringing the fastest broadband to rural America.

In February of this year, Packerland Broadband and Microsoft announced an agreement to provide broadband internet access to approximately 82,000 people living in rural regions of Michigan and Wisconsin over the next four years using a combination of fixed and wireless technologies, including innovative applications of TV white spaces, LTE, 5 GHz and millimeter wave technologies. Packerland is launching, in conjunction with Microsoft, digital literacy training programs to help educate its customers on how to embrace and safely use the Internet, especially the elderly.

Why CableLabs Membership?

Membership allows LLA and Packerland to both contribute and profit from our global community. With our international reach, we focus on achieving several objectives:

• Alignment: Assure alignment with CableLabs technologies across the global cable community.
• Adoption: Achieve global scale, and therefore low-cost solutions, through the adoption of common technologies by cable operators worldwide.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with global partners to share experiences, exchange best practices, and advance innovation throughout the cable industry.

For over 30 years, we’ve worked with some of the biggest players in the cable industry to research and develop cutting-edge technologies across 5 continents. We bring together the best and brightest minds in the industry, allowing our members to shape innovation roadmaps and develop boundary-stretching products and services to better serve their customers and their changing needs.

By becoming a CableLabs member, you will get the support you need to innovate, develop and test next-generation products that will shape the future. You get exclusive access to our quarterly R&D reports, competitive assessments of innovation focus areas, such as AI, deep network technologies, gigabit technologies, security, and more. Attendance at our member-only global events, like our Summer Conference 2018, provides access to world-class thinkers and creators in our industry, its vendor communities, and complementary industries.

We look forward to bringing on more global members to foster innovation worldwide. This benefits our cable operator members as well as our product suppliers and component manufacturers. As a sharing community, all our members grow and profit from each other’s market experiences. You can find more information about CableLabs membership benefits, including how to become a member by clicking below.

With the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, driven by consumer demand for connected experiences across converged networks, one thing is abundantly clear—it’s on cable to provide the integrated wired and wireless platforms of the future. On May 3-4, cable’s top executives will gather together in London to discuss emerging technologies and the evolution of hyper-converged networks that will become the backbone of these technologies over the course of the next eight years. Inform[ED] Europe 2018 is a not just about what’s “next”— it’s about the “next-next” and how we can plan for these innovations today.

Why You Should Be There

This members-only event will be a deep dive into future technologies that will transform the way we live and work. You’ll get a read on where the industry is headed, share insights and collaborate with top leaders and innovators from the European and US cable communities. By joining us, you can be a part of shaping the future.

What You’ll Learn

In two days, we plan to cover a wide range of topics from next-generation DOCSIS and fiber technologies, to network and platform differentiation achieved through reliability, to 5G and mobile growth opportunities, to operational excellence. We’ll examine the latest trends and how we can meet increasing consumer expectations for personalized, “uber-smart” experiences everywhere they go.

• We will start off by hearing from cable’s decision-makers. We’ve invited Vodafone Germany’s Manuel Cubero and Liberty Global’s Mike Fries – both members of our Board of Directors – to join our own Phil McKinney in a “fireside chat.” They will present their vision for the future and how they plan on exceeding customer expectations in the years to come.
• We'll have a session sharing CableLabs’ innovation roadmap for the next 8 years. You’ll learn more about the new technologies we’re working on and get a greater understanding of the technology opportunities and interdependencies that drive our timeline.
• You can explore emerging technology: access networks, 5G and more. In a world where cars are a step away from becoming smartphones on wheels and smart cities are within reach, consumer demand for new technology capabilities and more data-rich experiences is increasing. We will focus on how Cable can meet that need by driving innovation in networking, mobile and beyond.
• You'll see what others are working on through our Innovation Showcase – European style. Over the years we’ve identified, presented and collaborated with many forward-thinking tech companies with innovations that can make a difference for our business and our customers. You will get a unique opportunity to learn how 6 young companies are ahead of the game and how their hard work is impacting the industry.
• You'll hear Zanny Minton Beddows, Editor-in-Chief for The Economist and named one of the “Most Powerful Women in the World” by Forbes – and global economics expert – speak on the nexus between policy, economics and technology.
• Members of our C-suites will provide a diversity of opinions on future technologies that will transform the world we live in and the competitive positioning of our networks across two sessions – one with CxOs, a second with CTOs.

Get more details on the Inform[ED] Europe 2018 agenda and register here. We hope to see you in London!

On December 6-7, CableLabs hosted its first CableLabs Asia Summit and, by all accounts, it was a genuine success. We invited cable’s top leaders from across Asia – including our members in Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan – to come together in Shanghai to gain insight, collaborate and learn about the innovation impacting our networks.

CableLabs, together with nine of our members in Asia and key technology leaders from Comcast in the US and Liberty Global in Europe and Latin America, spent two days of complete immersion developing a greater understanding of the unique business, operations and competitive dynamics of the cable operators in Asia, exploring technologies advancing the competitive positioning of operators today, and the innovative technologies that will assure cable’s competitive positioning in the future. Three additional cable operators from China participated in the first day of the summit by way of exploring membership with CableLabs.

All in, 61 individuals across 14 MSOs, CableLabs, and other participants contributed to a highly interactive event. With NPS scores of 75 and 88 across the two days of the summit, value was very much delivered, success defined not only through the content provided by CableLabs, but equally so by way of presentations from across several of our members.

CableLabs presented:

• How innovation is done at CableLabs – and how we are bringing the technologies of the future to reality
• LPWAN IoT opportunities through CableLabs open source LoRa server solution
• Wired and wireless proactive network maintenance
• Machine learning and AI with applications for full band capture for proactive network maintenance, multicast channels for predictive video lineups, cable modem and set-top box patterns to monitor network health
• DOCSIS roadmap – including Full Duplex DOCSIS technology by which cable’s HFC networks can deliver up to 10 Gbps symmetrical speeds
• Coherent optics enabling substantially greater capacity over the same fiber
• 5G and wireless technologies enabling converged networks

Topics presented by our members:

• Comcast provided an overview of its network strategy
• Liberty Global outlined their customer premise equipment (CPE) strategy
• Presentations from our Asian members provided an overview of some of the advanced technologies implemented in their respective regions, including facilitating intelligent communities from Wasu Digital Media, OTT and Android STB solutions implemented by Taiwan Broadband Communications, functional requirements for development of the C-DOCSIS 2.0 specification in China led by Gcable, led by Gcable, and broadcasting video content to connected devices by Henan Cable
• CTO roundtable with senior technical leadership from Beijing Gehua, Chongqing Cable Network, J:COM from Japan and Shenzhen Topway exchanged insights to technical, strategic and competitive challenges confronting their businesses.

Projecting our support internationally by way of regional events is a critical part of our strategy at CableLabs. Through summits and conferences delivered in the regions we represent around the world, we are able to:

• More effectively support member engagement through exchanges and interaction between CableLabs and our members
• Develop critical insights and gain a deeper appreciation of issues that are driving our members in each region
• Assure that the technologies CableLabs is developing are universally applicable across all members
• Create and develop collaboration and community between and across members
• Foster ideas and strategies that feed an innovation engine by way of developing innovative technologies that can be applied across our members

Are you a European member – or a member elsewhere across the regions we serve – interested in collaborating with and learning from your fellow European members? Register now and join cable’s top executives across Europe to gain insight and learn more about future innovative technologies at Inform[ED] Europe May 3-4 in London.

In its continued commitment to the international cable community, CableLabs welcomes four new companies to its membership: GCable and Henan Cable (both situated in China), together with Nowo (Portugal) and Stofa (Denmark).

Guangdong Cable Network (aka Gcable)

Gcable serves Guangdong Province located in southeast China. Guangdong Province is one of the most highly industrialized provinces in China, with major technology centers in Guangzhou (served by Gcable) and Shenzhen (served by Topway, a CableLabs member). Gcable, which is the largest MSO in Guangdong Province, serves 13 million television subscribers and 1.7 million broadband subscribers.

Henan Cable

Henan Cable serves Henan Province. The company is 49% owned by CITIC Limited, China’s largest conglomerate with diverse global businesses focused on financial services, resources and energy, manufacturing, engineering contracting, real estate and telecommunications. CITIC Limited also has similar ownership interests in two other CableLabs members – Chongqing Cable Networks (originally located in Sichuan Province) and JSCN (located in Jiangsu Province). Henan Cable serves 11 million television subscribers and 400 thousand broadband subscribers.

Nowo

Nowo provides cable service in Portugal to 172 thousand television subscribers and 144 thousand broadband subscribers. Nowo is the second largest cable operator in Portugal. Nowo launched in September 2016. with a strategy focused on a disruptive “build your own bundle” which includes mobile voice and data together with fixed line video, broadband and voice services.

Stofa

Stofa is a Danish cable company affiliated with SE Group, a customer-owned, energy and telecommunications group. Stofa, began in 1959 serving antenna, housing and land associations across Denmark, and now provides fixed and mobile services to 344 thousand television subscribers, 323 thousand broadband subscribers, 84 thousand digital voice subscribers and 10 thousand mobile subscribers. Stofa is the second largest cable operator in Denmark.

These four members join 55 other cable operators from 5 continents bringing CableLabs’ total membership to 59 – representing over 180 million video subscribers worldwide.

In its global reach, CableLabs is focused on achieving several objectives:

• Alignment: Assure alignment with CableLabs technologies across the global cable community.
• Adoption: Achieve global scale – and therefore low-cost solutions – through the adoption of common technologies by cable operators worldwide.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with global partners to share experiences, exchange best practices and advance innovation throughout the cable industry.

We look forward to bringing on more members in the future to foster innovation worldwide. You can find more information about CableLabs’ global strategy here. Please contact us to discover the value of membership in CableLabs.

CableLabs participated in the 2nd Annual APOStech conference in Hong Kong July 4-6, 2017 and it was a huge success!

APOStech is designed to unite executives and key stakeholders from the video and broadband industries across the Asia Pacific region to discuss technology innovation and trends that are defining the future of the connected consumer. Over 180 participants from 88 companies around the globe were in attendance, giving CableLabs the opportunity to speak with current members and establish new relationships with other cable operators in the region.

Aravind Venugopal, Vice President with Media Partners Asia (MPA), set the backdrop for the conference by providing an overview of the explosive growth of broadband, pay tv and mobile services in Asia. MPA just released projections anticipating 30 million new broadband homes in Asia over the five year period from 2017-2022 (excluding China). Nearly half of this growth (45%) will occur in India. Pay tv subscribers will increase nearly 30 million, from 244 million to 271 million over this same period (again, excluding China).  SVOD subscribers will jump from 54 million to 108 million over the course of the 2017-2022 period.

Among the highly informative learnings from APOStech:

• Only 1 in 10 homes in the Philippines have broadband with an average download speed of 4 Mbps – with the growth of over 2 million additional broadband homes forecast by 2020.
• 100 million of the 275 million homes in India do not have a television.  Broadband represents an opportunity for these – and all other – homes.  In the Indian economy, prepaid services are dominant, including for broadband and pay tv.  Service providers need to think in terms of monthly, weekly and even daily prepaid services.  National MSOs have 12% of the broadband market – with the incumbent telecom provider (BSNL/MTNL) reaching 66% of the broadband market.
• In Korea, 58% of pay tv subscribers prefer cable television, this in a country with intense video competition from three national telecom networks (LG, KT and SK Broadband).
• 4K content is expanding across Asia – particularly in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore.

I delivered an overview of Gigabit Broadband Competition in the U.S. – the technologies innovated by CableLabs and its members by which cable operators are now delivering gigabit speeds globally (Click here to see my slide show presentation). I focused on the impact of collaboration across the global cable community in advancing broadband technologies at scale and the competitive leadership this strategy provides to cable operators and their customers by way of enhancing the user experience in the home and workplace.

Jeff Chen, CableLabs SVP of Global Technology, and I hosted an invitation-only event for cable operators attending the APOStech conference. Representatives from 9 MSOs participated – allowing for an in-depth overview of CableLabs and the opportunities provided for its members. Five MSOs across four countries (China, India, Korea and the Philippines) expressed substantial interest in progressing relationships with and learning more about CableLabs, extending invitations for 1:1 meetings with company executives.

We met with four of our members at the conference:

• PT Link Net (Indonesia)
• Shenzhen Topway (China)
• StarHub (Singapore)
• Taiwan Broadband Communications (Taiwan).

We were introduced to senior representatives from seven additional MSOs:

• CJ Hellovision and D’Live (Korea)
• In Broadband and Network18/Reliance (India)
• Guangzhou Digital Media (China)
• Hong Kong Broadband (Hong Kong)
• Kabankalan CATV and the Philippine Cable TV Association (Philippines)

CableLabs’ continued expansion in Asia advances its strategy of world-wide collaboration on technology and innovation for the benefit of the global cable community and the customers they serve.  From one member in Asia five years ago, CableLabs has grown to 12 members across Asia and Australia, including: Beijing Gehua CATV Network, Chongqing Cable Networks, Guangdong Cable Network, Henan Cable Network, J:COM, Jiangsu Broadcasting Cable Information Network, nbn, PT Link Net, Shenzhen Topway Video Communication, StarHub, Taiwan Broadband Communications and WASU Digital TV Media Group.

Coincidence or not, CableLabs gained its 60^th member on Monday, July 10 following APOStech, Henan Cable, serving Henan Province in China with 4 million video subscribers and 400,000 broadband subscribers.

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CableLabs is committed to expanding membership and support across Asia and beyond. With 60 members in 35 countries in Asia, Australia, Latin America, North America and Europe, CableLabs provides the opportunity for operators to collaborate with innovators worldwide. Please contact us to discover the value membership in CableLabs.

In a bit of alright, CableLabs recently welcomed Australia’s National Broadband Network (nbn) – as our 56^th member — and our first in Australia.  CableLabs now has members across five continents — adding Australia to Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

Established by the Australian government in 2009 to design, build and operate Australia's new broadband network, nbn is unique among CableLabs members as a Layer 2 network which wholesales access to Retail Service Providers (RSPs).  With the nbn network currently passing 4.6 million premises, approximately 50 RSPs are providing service to 2 million end user customers.  nbn plans to extend its network to 12 million premises by 2020 – and will serve 8 million end user customers through its RSPs.

nbn is unique in another fundamental way.  It is comprised of several heterogeneous network technologies, including fixed networks employing HFC, DSL and fiber (FTTx), together with wireless networks (fixed and satellite).  Through a strategy titled “Multi Technology Mix,” nbn is a “network of networks” which integrates and optimizes these technologies to maximize speed of rollout, optimize economic return and enhance flexibility. This flexibility is at the heart of nbn’s strategy to provide access to fast broadband to all Australians as soon as possible.

By the end of 2018, nbn will deploy DOCSIS 3.1 in its HFC network, joining a growing number of CableLabs’ members across Canada, Europe and the U.S. who are deploying DOCSIS 3.1 multi-gigabit technology.  These deployments will help deliver new customer experiences that are faster and more efficient. Examples of the improved experience include:

• 10Gbps downstream and up to 1Gbps upstream network capacity
• Improved responsiveness for applications such as online gaming and video streaming
• Ability to transmit up to 50 percent more data over the same spectrum, on existing HFC networks
• Increased cable modem energy efficiency through advanced energy management protocols

For more information about nbn, please visit http://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/about-nbn-co.html.