From 2013 until about 2018, several of the major cable providers (MSOs) embarked on a project called “CableWiFi”. This was Comcast, TimeWarner, Cox, Brighthouse, and Optimum (Now Comcast, Spectrum, Cox, Charter, Altice). The plan was for each MSO to design and deploy WiFi access points on their cable plant in areas where people congregated. These devices would broadcast each other’s SSIDs and share their login information. This project was promoted by the cellular carriers as a way to offload some of their new 4G/LTE data networks. As an example, if you were a Comcast customer and were visiting friends in another market covered by another one of the MSOs, you could use their devices to get access to the Internet while there.
We worked with Comcast, Cox, and TimeWarner (now Spectrum) to select and design over 500,000 sites nationwide. We deployed and managed a team of over 40 surveyors that would work remotely to select sites based on their selection criteria. Then we would deploy field surveyors to validate the sites the MSOs wanted to do a deeper dive on. Our work was mainly as project management and subject matter experts. We were supporting a valued partner of ours as this was their project and relationship. In addition to oversight, we helped develop the processes and the tools we used to gather the information needed. We used high end GIS software to layout the search areas and provide layers for the surveyors so they knew where the cable plant was supposed to be located. Our work was nationwide in every major metro area.
