Altice USA is advancing its Optimum fiber footprint in Northern Texas, announcing today it’s building networks in the cities of Brownfield, Hereford and Seminole.
Construction is already underway in those areas, with Altice planning to turn up initial service early next year. The operator aims to reach nearly 16,000 fiber passings across all three cities: 6,500 in Hereford, 5,400 in Seminole and 4,000 in Brownfield.
The cities represent new markets for Optimum, an Altice representative told Fierce, and the operator is actively communicating with communities to inform them when fiber service will be available.
Parts of Texas are incorporated within Altice’s Suddenlink territory, a subsidiary that changed its name to the Optimum brand this past August. Around that time, Altice’s then-CEO Dexter Goei mentioned the operator was exploring a sale of its Suddenlink assets, but noted talks might fall through.
Altice dropped the news last week that it’s not moving forward with the Suddenlink sale. It stated maintaining Suddenlink operations “represents the best path forward for Altice USA and its stockholders.” Company stock slightly dropped following that announcement.
Altice in February unveiled plans to cover two-thirds of its entire footprint with fiber by the end of 2025. For Suddenlink, it targeted a total of 200,000 passings by this year’s end, ultimately reaching 800,000 locations in 2025.
The operator previously stated starting this year, it would begin upgrading six Suddenlink markets in Texas to fiber – including Abilene, Amarillo, Bryan-College Station, Lubbock, San Angelo and Tyler. Construction in those areas is expected to be completed in phases over the next year or so.
Optimum on its website indicates fiber deployment will be “starting soon” in Abilene, Amarillo, College Station and more than 20 additional markets in Texas. Alongside today’s three announced cities, Altice is already building networks in Kaufman, Oak Grove, Tyler and Whitehouse, Texas.
As for competition, Altice in its third quarter earnings call highlighted increased pressure from Frontier Communications in the East Coast and AT&T within the more western parts of the country. AT&T has particularly undertaken a variety of public-private partnerships to deploy fiber. In Texas, it’s spearheading a $24 million project to build an XGS-PON network in Amarillo.
On the eastern front, Altice has accelerated its multi-gig offering by introducing symmetrical 2-gig and 5-gig service to Optimum customers in New York and Connecticut. Frontier as well as Verizon Fios are notable fiber players in those areas.