Can Cable Top Telcos in Enterprise Market?

Having made great strides in the commercial services space with small and midsized firms, cable operators are looking to steal a march on their telco rivals again, this time in the even more lucrative enterprise market.

With the help of lower prices, greater flexibility, faster technology upgrades and more individualized customer care, US cable providers are now seeking to bring larger companies to the fold. They are aiming to capture 10% or more of the market, mainly by luring them away from the incumbent telcos.

In doing so, US MSOs aim to follow their successful formula in the SMB space, where they have carved out at least a 20% market share over the last ten years or so, largely at the incumbents' expense. As a result, US MSOs have expanded their commercial telecom services revenues from about $2 billion a decade ago to at least $14 billion last year, as tracked by Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading.

In fact, Comcast and Charter, by far the two largest US cable operators, should each generate up to $6 billion in commercial services revenue this year if current trends hold for the fourth quarter. Not too shabby, eh?

But, while business services have generally become big business for cable, it's not clear at all that big businesses will also become big business for cable. While cable operators have scored with small and midsized firms across the land, that doesn't mean they can do the same with larger, more demanding companies, which have hundreds or thousands of employees, multiple locations and much more sophisticated telecom needs and generally aren't all that keen about the quality of cable service.

The largest US cable operators recognize the steep challenge at hand. That's why they've been ramping up their business services units with more enterprise experts, adding more fiber links to their networks, rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 to deliver gigabit speeds to commercial customers and launching more advanced products and services. For instance, Comcast Business introduced a new "carrier-grade" SD-WAN solution for midsized and large enterprises last spring and Charter Communications Inc. 's Spectrum Enterprises unit announced plans to do the same just last month. (See Comcast Business Dives Into SD-WAN Waters and Charter Touts Gig Plans as Earnings Slide.)

How are these various strategies working out so far? What kinds of hurdles are cable operators encountering? What other steps must they take? Where do they need to focus their efforts right now? And what are their general prospects for success?

We will tackle all these questions and more next week as our "Future of Cable Business Services" conference returns to New York for the 11th straight year. Leading cable, enterprise, Wall Street and vendor experts will review the industry's latest products, technologies and strategies for the commercial market, explore the promising opportunities that enterprises and other new sectors offer, examine the major technical and operational challenges that operators face and recommend ways to overcome those challenges.

Key speakers at the main November 30 conference will include: Jeff Lewis, vice president of Connectivity Services for Comcast Business; Satya Parimi, group vice president of data and cloud products at Charter's Spectrum Enterprise; Kevin Stephens, executive vice president of Altice Business; Nomi Bergman, senior executive officer of Advance/Newhouse; Craig Moffett, senior research analyst at MoffettNathanson; and Chris Bastian, senior vice president and CTO at SCTE/ISBE. And that's just for starters.

In addition, Light Reading will offer a special half-day workshop on the enterprise market as a bonus for a select group of cable operators, telcos and other service providers on November 29, the afternoon before the main conference. Co-hosted by Amdocs, this exclusive, free session, entitled "Digital Strategies for Enterprise Customers," will delve into the opportunities and challenges that the enterprise market poses for cable operators and other providers and foster discussion in a more intimate setting. Speakers will include Glenn Katz, vice president and general manager of Comcast Business, Enterprise Solutions; Stan Hubbard, director of Communications and Research and MEF17 program director of MEF; and Brian Washburn, practice leader of Network Transformation and Cloud Services at Ovum. Click here to check out the agenda.

Following the workshop, attendees will head off to a private suite at Madison Square Garden to watch the New York Knicks take on the Miami Heat. That means there will be even more opportunities for discussion and networking for those who can make the workshop. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? But better sign up now because the workshop and suite seats are limited and going fast.

So please join us in the Big Apple next week, just in time for the the big tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. Sign up for Light Reading's Future of Cable Business Services event on November 29 and 30 at the Westin Times Square in the very heart of midtown Manhattan.

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading