Mediacom Goes Hybrid for HFC Network

In a real sense, a “hybrid” strategy that bridges present and future technologies, business models and services is an effort to harvest a legacy business while laying the foundation for the next business model.

And even when cable TV executives remain confident about scaling their hybrid fiber coax networks to multi-gigabit bandwidth, they also are starting to deploy fiber-to-premises networks to serve business customers.

Mediacom, for example, plans to install gigabit per second Internet access for its consumer customers over the next three years. But Mediacom is using a hybrid physical media strategy.

“We’re actually doing dual cables where we are running both both fiber and coax,” said Dan Templin, Mediacom VP of business services.

The dual fiber and coax drop includes a four-pair fiber and coax in single sheath to address various service configurations that might be required by business customers.

By doing so, Mediacom creates an upgrade path for fiber to customer that does not require additional construction.