Altice USA announced plans Capex of $1.8 billion in 2022 to accelerate its fiber deployment strategy across its Optimum and Suddenlink footprint.
Altice USA aims to reach 6.5 million fiber passings in 2025.
Altice said its capital expenditures of $386.6 million in Q4 2021 represented 15.3 percent of revenue and was up 12.2 percent. Capex of $1.23 billion in FY 2021 represented 12.2 percent of revenue and was up 14.7 percent driven by accelerated FTTH, new builds, and Suddenlink network upgrades.
Altice USA plans Capex of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, indicating a substantial increase in investment plans. The latest Capex plans excludes capital expenditures associated with potential subsidized rural broadband construction in 2022.
The broadband service provider believes that investment in fiber expansion in Suddenlink and Optimum will position the company to pass more than two thirds of its entire footprint with 100 percent fiber broadband over the next four years, including approximately 2.5 million fiber passings at Suddenlink and 4 million fiber passings at Optimum.
Altice USA has been building a fiber broadband network in its Optimum territory in the New York tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) with 1.2 million fiber passings available for sales as of December 31, 2021. For Suddenlink, construction is expected to begin this year in areas of Texas.
Additional states in the Suddenlink footprint that will benefit from this fiber expansion plan include areas of Arizona, California, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, Altice USA said.
Dexter Goei, Altice USA Chief Executive Officer, said: “Fiber is the future and given the progress we have made at Optimum with our fiber expansion, we’re excited to build on that success and break ground later this year at Suddenlink to bring our advanced network to more customers and communities.”
