Broadband

Debt rating agency Moody’s Investor’s Service sees stable growth ahead for the U.S. cable, with high-speed Internet and commercial services driving the bulk of growth, according to a recent report.

In its annual Industry Outlook released Thursday, Moody’s anticipates cash flow growth in the sector will rise a modest 3% in 2013, the same level as 2012 and reflecting market saturation and competition.

Major U.S. cable operators provided faster average connection speeds in November for Netflix streaming users than telco DSL services -- including AT&T’s U-verse -- while Netflix said the embryonic Google Fiber service took the No. 1 spot overall.

John Pickens, a Cisco Systems engineer who previously helped develop some of the earliest cable modems and CMTSs, died Saturday in a bicycle accident in near his home in Northern California, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Pickens, who was 66, crashed around 12:45 p.m. on a road just north of the Fremont, Calif., city limits after leaving his Newark home on his bike, and died after hitting his head, according to the newspaper.

Cablevision Systems said it will increase the cost of its broadband service by $5 per month in 2013, which will result in an average increase of 3.2% for Optimum Online customers who are not currently on a promotional rate. 

The Bethpage, N.Y.-based MSO said the price bump is the first increase on its broadband service in a decade, and said it will make no changes to the price of its cable TV or phone products.

Even though not many customers have opted for it, Time Warner Cable will expand its usage-based billing plan for lighter Internet users nationwide by the end of 2012 with the exception of Hawaii, chairman CEO Glenn Britt said at an investor conference Monday.