Any News on Breezeline's High Split Progress

CBusdude

Hey all, not sure if anyone is here from DSLReports but I was curious if anyone has heard anything on Breezeline's progress for high-split? I unfortunately live just outside of where they service (they're literally just down the road from me) so I'm stuck with Charter Communications who has been working on high-split in the area but I haven't really heard much about what Breezeline is doing here in the Columbus, Ohio market (or anywhere really).

FoxMike

CBusdude It’s going very slowly.

Mostly still Whitehall has the High split equipment. It’s all Teleste equipment.

No PHY nodes yet but they are on the roadmap.

Breezeline is being ran around as Alta and others are building Columbus pretty aggressively.

EthSlinger

Their recent reorg, that hundredgig mentioned, caused some changes in decision makers. It looks like they have finally started moving again. Mid-split is on going in the Columbus area, and they may halt that and move directly to high split in that remaining first area.

JimmyK814

Any plans for this in the Altoona/Johnstown area?

Been looking at modem upgrades. I've used an S33 in the past, but I see there is an S34 that may be targeted towards faster uploads. Can't really find information on if this is a supported modem on Breezeline.

EthSlinger

JimmyK814 From what I’ve seen they’re deploying FTTH in some of the legacy markets. Just search “Breezeline FTTH” and you should see a slate of press releases last week from some various old systems where they’re deploying FTTH as a replacement for HFC.

hundredgig

I actually left Breezeline recently, didn’t like the direction after the reorg so I decided to take my toys and leave. US investment is being deprioritized and instead Canada is the new focus, mainly because all of the C level folks are Canadian.

However, there is no mid split going on in Columbus. Other states are doing mid split because they are further behind in sunsetting QAM video, but not Ohio.

The reorg definitely slowed down the high split project, but the US portions of engineering team is still committed to moving it along, although it is certainly an uphill battle for them.

CBusdude

hundredgig Sad to hear you’ve left Breezeline, but hopefully it is off to better things! I’m surprised they’re taking their time on the Ohio systems considering Charter is moving full force on their DAA & high split upgrades in the area!

rootwyrm

hundredgig can’t say I blame you there, and the disinvestment in the US is really, really blatant. All of a sudden, certain regions are getting broken boot images or just password lock bullshit. Now there’s nightly outages on a schedule - literally dropping the CMTS every night at midnight. And none of my contacts appear to still be there.
At this point, I’m assuming Cleveland is going full constructive abandonment.

gohabs007

hundredgig We certainly appreciate all that you did for us while you were with Breezeline, and even now keeping in touch on a new forum when you don’t even work for them any longer. You will surely be missed and some other company will be getting a top notch new hire!

CBusdude

I do think it is interesting, Cogeco goes out of there way to talk about the Ohio markets during the earnings call but yet it seems like they haven’t made any real progress on upgrades. Charter meanwhile has a plan in place and has at the very least started some of the early work here. It seems like Charter will be the first to market with improved uploads which is interesting because WOW! Was always ahead of TWC/Insight when it came to speeds. Seems like we’re in a new era in Columbus where the incumbent cable company is going to be the more innovative one.

EthSlinger

CBusdude There’s progress happening, but it’s slow because of problems with vendors. I heard from some contacts that they’re hoping to speed things up in eastern Columbus area. The big issue now is, after hundredgig left, the new people in charge want to start over and put their own stamp on it. It’s not going so well since they’re not as good as hundredgig was. I don’t work there, but this is what some friends who work there told me.

CBusdude

EthSlinger Ahhhh, well that is promising to hear that they are making some more progress! Thanks for sharing!

Janus67

EthSlinger Thanks for that info. Hope that they get it figured out soon as it doesn’t look like Fiber will be coming to my subdivision anytime soon in Hilliard. At this point it will be a race to see if Breezeline or Spectrum manages to release HS in my area first.

rootwyrm

As I said above, Northeast Ohio looks like once again we’re basically being constructively abandoned by everyone at this point. Very much ‘why bother’ attitudes on all sides.

Spectrum’s official stance is that Ohio’s HS buildout will be complete while explicitly excluding Cleveland and all of NEO. They have no intent to bring it to the rotting plants up here. Go ahead; check their official buildout roadmap. Cleveland is excluded with Ohio buildout officially completing in 2025.

Breezeline is still struggling to complete basic node splits up here. Everyone I’ve spoken to basically doesn’t think MS/HS is even on the roadmap at this point - in part given what they’re deploying for node splits - and fiber most DEFINITELY is not on the menu.

And I’ve got very justified opinions about the new people and their basic competency when it comes to modem configuration. Pushing three-way configs to two-way diplexers doesn’t even rank amateur hour, to say nothing of enforcing the known broken login setup.
“Not as good as” is a colossal understatement.

Janus67

rootwyrm Hey Rootwyrm, is there a different roadmap? I was reading the spectrum highsplit thread here and it looks like Cinci will/already has high-split access but I didn’t see any other locations in Ohio listed on the site, outside of a ‘hopefully everything will be upgraded by end of the year 2027’.

Of course I’d also like to see bzl moving faster/beating charter/spectrum in my area in NW Columbus but I’m not banking on anything at this point.

CBusdude

FoxMike Breezeline is being ran around as Alta and others are building Columbus pretty aggressively.

Yeah, I’m really surprised at how slow Breezeline seems to be moving! I actually saw a Charter employee (or contractor) in a car stopped and the guy was mapping out where the nodes/amps were. Seems like we may be getting ready to start the DAA/High Split upgrades soon! And of course AT&T has still been building fiber, just seems like Breezeline is the only one without a major plan moving forward right now.

FoxMike

CBusdude

They have started activating RPHY nodes now in Bexley

CBusdude

FoxMike That’s good to hear! Sounds like they’re finally moving forward with some kind of plan! Weird that they haven’t announced anything! Charter is touting their upgrade plans loudly! Breezeline hasn’t even done a press release or anything!

Bodycount

So it looks like dslreports people came here. Good to know.

I was still wondering if the high split was going to happen. Good thing I didn’t buy the CM3000 modem early. Would have been a waste of money right now.

Any news for Henderson/Bethel/Sawmill/315 box of residents?

hundredgig

I don’t think cogeco could find Ohio on a map. They really don’t care about their US market, its sad.
Several more US based key engineering leaders have recently quit, so I dont think it is going to get better soon.

EthSlinger

hundredgig This was a catastrophic loss.

rootwyrm

hundredgig that doesn’t surprise me at all… NEO was very obviously being transitioned into the constructive abandonment phase when they were restricting it to node splits. Spectrum’s apparently so confident Cogeco’s abandoned the region, high split’s allegedly been cancelled. Not even on phase 3 any more.

FoxMike

hundredgig

The writing was on the wall. That’s why I left.

Everything goes thru Canada now. They are still trying to save money but honestly from the inside reports it’s costing them more.

They are still having issues on this high split stuff.