They'll be ponying up big $$ to start deploying much fiber very deep into their HFC plant. They need to for their current/next technological leap into IP deliverance and narrow-casting will demand so. BANDWIDTH! They will need to eliminate as many active & passive connections as possible such as their coax drops (Which constitute about 45% of their plant) because of common path distortion (CPD) and and leakage ingress/egress.
When these operators jump to the next evolutionary QAM platform e.g., 512 or higher, these schemes absolutely will not tolerate plant contaminants. That's one of the many reasons why contract installation companies are getting their installers certified. The business of installation is clearly not like it used to be when gas costs were around $ .65 per gallon.....yikes. Accountability and Reliability.
Just my opinion, I could be wrong .. <DMILLER>
