So Who's left for Comcast to Buy/Merge with Now?

telcodad

With Charter and Cox announcing today that they’re merging: https://broadbandbulletin.com/d/3108-charter-and-cox-to-merge

The FCC approving Verizon’s purchase of Frontier today: https://broadbandbulletin.com/d/3121-fcc-approves-verizons-20-billion-merger-with-frontier

AT&T in talks to acquire Lumen Technologies’ consumer fiber operations: https://broadbandbulletin.com/d/1875-att-is-in-talks-to-buy-lumens-consumer-fiber-unit

Who’s left for Comcast to purchase or merge with now?

Altice USA/Optimum? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altice_USA

Mediacom? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediacom

WideOpenWest (WOW!)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Open_West

Cable One/Sparklight? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_One

Breezeline (previously Atlantic Broadband)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breezeline

clocks

Astound? But does Comcast really need a merger? Aren’t they already the largest cable co?

telcodad

clocks But does Comcast really need a merger? Aren’t they already the largest cable co?

They are now, but will be number 2 if the Charter/Cox merger goes through.

Tshirt

Bigger isn’t better.
perhaps building a Customer First culture is the key to long term success/survival.

telcodad

Maybe Altice USA/Optimum then?

What’s Next for Cable Giant Comcast After Charter-Cox Merger
By Paul R. La Monica, Barrons - May 16, 2025
https://www.barrons.com/articles/comcast-stock-price-charter-cox-2cb9ca6b

Charter Communications and rival Cox Communications are getting hitched, leaving shareholders of fellow cable TV company Comcast to wonder what the megadeal means for them.

Comcast … hopes to boost the company’s value for investors with a planned spinoff of some of its cable television networks—including MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network and Golf Channel—and digital assets such as Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes, into a new company dubbed Versant.
:
The spinoff could also make it easier for Comcast to make deals of its own in the rapidly consolidating broadband sector. The company wasn’t immediately available for comment. But Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with New Street Research, said in a report Friday the Charter-Cox merger may open the door for Comcast to scoop up Altice USA , the owner of the Optimum broadband network. Chaplin said the “odds are decent that this deal is attempted” but he added that Comcast “is likely to wait until there is greater certainty around how the [Trump] administration will react to deals generally.” ….
:
So Comcast is likely to remain focused on getting the Versant spinoff completed so it can become a purer play broadband story before pursuing any other major growth initiatives.

jweaver

T-Mobile

cypherstream

I thought maybe Comcast and Mediacom. They partner with Xumo already. Altice… thats if the French want to sell right? They have a very different system architecture with a lot of fiber. Old Cisco HFC plant and set tops, and then the very unique sagemcom set tops on the ip network.

videomatic3

telcodad
didnt verizon sell its land lines in california and texas and whatnot to frontier many years ago? and now they are buying it back? they sold it at around 10 billion now they are buying it back for 20 billion

Ultibeam

videomatic3
The then Verizon CEO, Lowell McAdam, was focused on wireless. In 2015, Verizon sold their California, Florida, and Texas Fios networks to Frontier. The following year, 2016, LTE Advanced was announced. Which is LTE with carrier aggregation, as we know it today. Verizon proceeded to spend their money on their wireless network, which is why they consistently ranked at the top for network performance.

Fios was just not a profitable business at the time. Today, it’s different. Fiber is rapidly expanding from many companies. It was only Verizon in the 2000s and early 2010s. Which made deployment very costly. Buying Frontier is a short cut to being relevant again in FTTP, outside of their ILEC. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are now aligned in a fiber + wireless business model.

cypherstream

Ultibeam I wonder what comes first… Verizon selling copper plants to someone, or thru go and backfill upgrade all their existing copper telco systems…

Verizon here in our part of PA is all copper.

Tshirt

videomatic3
Verizon shed it when it was too expensive for them to complete full FiOS everywhere.
now they are reeling back in frontier and other bits as available willing to finish investing with fiber AND wireless alternatives.
even at twice the price it’s a good deal for them to retake the old territory

Man-of-Leisure

cypherstream Do they actually still have copper customers?

They keep announcing copper retirements, and they haven’t allowed new customers to sign up for DSL for a while now.

The plan is probably just to abandon the copper, upgrade some to FiOS and the rest get 5G fixed wireless.

No one wants to buy the copper.

Andyross

In a major move to bolster its broadband infrastructure, AT&T announced on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, that it has agreed to acquire the Mass Markets fiber business of Lumen Technologies, CenturyLink’s parent company, for $5.75 billion.

https://cordcuttersnews.com/att-is-buying-centurylink-here-is-everything-you-need-to-know/

cypherstream

Man-of-Leisure In our neighborhood some old people still have Verizon POTS. They still came out and installed new peds and replaced section of bad copper cable for people who had hum and static issues.

Problem is everything is direct bury, so it will be a huge dig project to convert to fiber. Both cable companies in our neighborhood, both the incumbent SECV and as of late 2022, Comcast ran all their cables in conduit. Blowing or pulling fiber through that conduit should be possible. Its 2 ½ inch terracotta orange HDPE from Duraline. I think you can fit some more cables in some of it. The drop from tap to home would have to be redone in many cases. Newer installs or “fixed” installs were redone with smaller conduit so cables can be replaced easily without digging it all up.

I really dont know how much longer the Verizon copper system can survive. NONE of the younger generation have POTS phone lines that I know. They all use cell phones. I’m 43 and even most people my age eliminated landline. All cellular. I have a VOIP.MS account to our Panasonic cordless phones at home but thats like an emergency thing. I ported the number from SECV cable well over a year ago. VOIP.MS is usage based and since we barely use it, its like $4 a month. SECV’s was like $23 a month and Verizon is in the neighborhood of $40+ a month… like why would you pay that much for a copper phone line?

cypherstream

Andyross I saw this.. Interesting, sounds like its the residential arm of Lumen “Mass market”. I still think I’m going to be peering with Lumen at work on the enterprise side.

Man-of-Leisure

cypherstream Yeah, I switched my parents and other family members to Ooma VoIP at least 10 years ago, which is only like $5/month.

Only issue is occasional audio dropouts due to latency spikes or other things in the home using the bandwidth, it’s not given priority like VoIP from your ISP would be.

But for the price, none of them care.

smilingbob

cypherstream We also use only cellphones but still have a VOIP line through Magic Jack for about the last 10 years or so. It was one of the ones I tried that had a normal dialtone that our home security system recognized and used to dial out in case it was triggered. And it’s freaking cheap, my middle name. I have a Panny cordless phone hooked up to it but I don’t think we’ve actually used it for phone calls in many years.

CommunityMember

Man-of-Leisure it’s not given priority like VoIP from your ISP would be.

Some switches/routers can prioritize VoIP traffic to the modem/ISP, but it often involves more advanced devices/configurations. LLD should also help here, if the VoIP traffic is appropriately marked.