Altice Adds Arris to Gigabit Playbook

Arris said Altice will deploy its flagship cable access platform, the E6000, to enable gigabit broadband services in multiple parts of the globe.

Altice will deploy the E6000, a DOCSIS 3.1-facing converged cable access platform (CCAP), via SFR in France, Orange-Tricom in The Dominican Republic, along with an expansion of the E6000 footprint at Suddenlink Communications, the U.S.-based MSO Altice acquired late last year.

Arris announced the deal ahead of an investor meeting being held today in New York. 

In February, Altice, which is in the process of acquiring Cablevision Systems, said it was committed to Operation GigaSpeed, a Suddenlink initiative announced in 2014 aimed at bringing 1-Gig broadband to 90% of the MSO’s footprint by 2017.

“Altice is fast-becoming a major player in the global pay TV market, and it's an exciting time for ARRIS to be collaborating with operators from the Altice Group around the world. Selecting the ARRIS E6000 CER is a strategic technology investment for Altice that benefits its global operations today and into the future,” said Bruce McClelland, president of Network & Cloud, Global Services at Arris, in a statement.

“Working with ARRIS assures us from both a technological and operational perspective as the ARRIS E6000 CER is a proven, global platform with a clear roadmap for the future,” added Max Blumberg, CTO of Altice. “We look forward to deploying the platform across the Altice properties as we strive to deliver the broadband speeds and services our customers demand from us.”

Arris isn’t the only network vendor factoring into Altice’s gigabit plans. Last April, Altice announced it would also tap Cisco Systems’s CCAP products as it poured its foundation for DOCSIS 3.1, a new platform that will bring multi-gigabit speeds to HFC networks. Cisco formally launched its flagship cable access network platform, the cBR-8, at last year’s INTX show.