Pai's Early Steps Leave Altice USA CEO Optimistic, in Rare Cable Keynote at NAB Show
Early moves by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stir optimism for the CEO of the owner of Cablevision, Suddenlink and other operators. Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei, in a rare cable executive keynote speech at the NAB Show, cited the agency…
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under Pai undoing net neutrality ISP privacy rules, while saying he hasn't seen anything public about what the chairman may next do with the net neutrality rules overall and no public disclosure of possible plans there (see 1704250056). "Everyone in our industry where I sit today is cautiously optimistic that we will be able to operate in a fair and efficient way," Goei said in Q&A Tuesday here in Las Vegas. "Chairman Pai has done a terrific job ... clarifying some issues that were an overhang on our industry which potentially misaligned us with some people who were tangential to our industry." Goei cited privacy rules, in which non-ISPs weren't subjected to the same regime as broadband service providers that Goei said generally aren't engaged in commercial activities around data on users' IP addresses. The agency "has moved at a very quick pace in the first few months here, so we remain cautiously optimistic," he said. On Altice's heavy spending on fiber deployments in the U.S. and in Europe, where it got its start before entering America, Goei said he expects those capital expenditures to prove worthwhile. "Fiber today remains the most robust and efficient and reliable technology," he said. Investing in "little steps to eventually get to fiber makes no sense," he added. Such fiber deployments aren't just about future needs, "when one understands this is the present," he said. Altice USA has said it's building a fiber-to-the-home network capable of 10 Gbps across most of its footprint by 2022 (see 1611300029). On the company's initial public offering plans (see 1704110009), Goei said it wants "to be ready to the extent that it makes sense that someone wanted to talk about any type of combination or strategic" issues, but "we are very happy where we are today." Even amid rising programming costs, a trend he said is "going in the wrong direction," Altice USA has "a good relationship with our programming brethren." The executive was the first cable speaker in recent memory to be an NAB Show keynoter, noted his questioner Mark Robichaux, editorial director of publications including Broadcasting & Cable. Said Goei later: "I’m surprised that more of my peers haven’t been able to come to the show previously."