About Altice USA

Altice USA, Inc. (Altice USA) provides broadband communications and video services in the United States. The company is a subsidiary of Next Alt. S.à.r.l. The company markets its services primarily under the Optimum brand. The company delivers broadband, video, and telephony services to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers. The company’s footprint extends across 21 states (primarily in the New York metropolitan area and various markets in the south-central United States) through a fiber-rich hybrid-fiber coaxial (HFC) broadband network and a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network with approximately 9.5 million total passings as of December 31, 2022. Additionally, the company offers news programming and advertising services, and a full service mobile offering to consumers across its footprint. The company’s ongoing FTTH network build, with planned upgrades, will enable it to deliver multi-gig broadband speeds to meet the growing data needs of residential and business customers. Concurrent to the company’s FTTH network deployment, it also continues to upgrade its existing HFC network through the deployment of digital and expansion of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.1 technology in order to roll out enhanced broadband services to customers. The company makes available in a majority of its footprint 1 Gbps broadband services which provide a connectivity experience supporting the most data-intensive activities, including streaming 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) and high-definition (HD) video on multiple devices, online multi-player video game streaming platforms, video chatting, streaming music, high-quality virtual-and augmented reality experiences, and downloading large files. Products and Services The company provides broadband, video and telephony services to both residential and business customers. The company also provides enterprise-grade fiber connectivity, bandwidth and managed services to enterprise customers and provides advertising time and services to advertisers. In 2022, the company surpassed 2.1 million homes and businesses passed with its state-of-the-art FTTH network. In addition, the company offers various news programming through traditional linear and digital platforms and a full service mobile offering to consumers across its footprint. Residential Services The company’s residential customer relationships for broadband, video and telephony services provided to residential customers. Broadband Services The company offers a variety of broadband service tiers tailored to meet the different needs of its residential customers. Offers include download speeds up to 5 Gbps for the company’s residential customers. The company makes FTTH symmetrical broadband service available to over 2.1 million homes and plans to continue this expansion throughout its footprint. In 2022, the company added 2 Gbps and 5 Gbps symmetrical speed tiers to a portion of its FTTH network and expanded deployment of Smart WiFi 6. The company expects to make these speeds available to all residential and business customers in its FTTH footprint in the future. Substantially all of the company’s HFC network is digital and DOCSIS 3.1 compatible, with 242 homes per node and a bandwidth capacity of at least 750 MHz throughout. This network allows the company to provide its customers with advanced broadband, video and telephony services. In addition, the company has deployed WiFi across its footprint providing for approximately 1.5 million total WiFi hotspots as of December 31, 2022. The WiFi network allows broadband customers to access Internet connectivity while they are away from their home or office. WiFi is delivered via wireless access points mounted on the company’s broadband network, in certain retail partner locations, certain rail stations, New York City parks and other public venues. Some of the company’s equipment includes a second network that enables all broadband customers to access the WiFi network throughout the neighborhoods it serves. Access to the WiFi network is offered as a free value-added benefit to broadband customers. The company’s WiFi service also allows its broadband customers to access the WiFi networks of Comcast Corporation (Comcast), Charter Communications, Inc. (Charter) and Cox Communications, Inc. Through these relationships the company offers its customers complimentary access to additional hotspots nationwide. Video Services The company offers a variety of video services through Optimum TV, which include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks, over the top (OTT) services, such as Netflix, YouTube and others, advanced digital video services, such as video-on-demand (VOD), HD channels, digital video recorder (DVR) and pay-per-view, to its residential markets. Depending on the market and level of service, customers have access to local broadcast networks and independent television stations, news, information, sports and entertainment channels, regional sports networks, international channels and premium services, such as HBO, Showtime and Cinemax. Additionally, the company provides app based solutions for TV, including a companion mobile app that allows viewing of television content on iOS or Android devices, as well as the available Optimum TV app on Apple TV for eligible customers. The company’s residential customers pay a monthly charge based on the video programming level of service, tier or package they receive and the type of equipment they select. Customers who subscribe to seasonal sports packages, international channels and premium services may be charged an additional monthly amount. The company may also charge additional fees for pay-per-view programming and events, DVR and certain VOD services. As of December 31, 2022, the company’s residential customers were able to receive between 452 to 583 digital channels depending on their market and level of service. In addition, depending on the service area, the company offers between 146 to 186 HD channels which represent the most widely watched programming, including all major broadcast networks, as well as most leading national cable networks, premium channels and regional sports networks. The company also provides advanced services, such as pay-per-view and VOD that give residential video customers control over when they watch their favorite programming. The company’s pay-per-view service allows customers to pay to view single showings of programming on an unedited, commercial-free basis, including feature films, live sporting events, concerts and other special events. The company’s VOD service provides on-demand access to movies, special events, free prime time content and general interest titles. Subscription-based VOD premium content, such as HBO and Showtime is made available to customers who subscribe to one of its premium programming packages. For a monthly fee, the company offers DVR services. Depending on the service area and market, customers may receive either a set-top box DVR with the ability to record, pause and rewind live television or an enhanced Cloud DVR with remote-storage capability to record 15 shows simultaneously while watching any live or pre-recorded show, and pause and rewind live television with three storage capacity options to select from. Additionally, customers can use their credentials to access apps provided by programmers and networks on platforms where these apps are offered. The company also provides an entertainment product, Optimum Stream, to its non-video broadband customers that offers customers access to a wide variety of video content through an easy self-installation device. Telephony Services Through Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone service the company also offers unlimited local, regional and long-distance calling within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for a flat monthly rate, including popular calling features such as caller ID with name and number, call waiting, three-way calling and enhanced emergency 911 dialing. The company also offers additional options designed to meet its customers' needs, including directory assistance, voicemail services and international calling. Mobile The company offers a mobile service providing data, talk and text to consumers in or near its service footprint. The service is delivered over a nationwide network with long-term evolution (LTE) and 5G (where available) coverage through its network partners, including its infrastructure-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. (T-Mobile). The company offload mobile traffic using its Optimum Wi-Fi network of hotspots in the New York metropolitan area, as well as select customer premises equipment across its footprint. The company’s full infrastructure MVNO agreement with T-Mobile is differentiated from other light MVNOs in that it gives the company full access control over its own core network, as well as the Home Location Register and subscriber identification module (SIM) cards. This allows the company to fully control seamless data offloading and the handover between the fixed and wireless networks. The company also has full product, features and marketing flexibility with its mobile service. The company’s mobile product is sold at Optimum stores, as well as online. Consumers can bring their own devices or purchase or finance a variety of phones directly from the company, including Apple, Samsung, Motorola and TCL devices. Business Services The company offers a wide and growing variety of products and services to both large enterprise and small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers, including broadband, telephony, networking and video services. As of December 31, 2022, the company served approximately 381,200 SMB customers across its footprint. The company serves enterprise customers primarily through its majority-owned Lightpath business. Enterprise Customers Lightpath provides Ethernet, data transport, IP-based virtual private networks, Internet access, telephony services, including session initiated protocol (SIP) trunking and VoIP services to the business market primarily in the New York metropolitan area. Lightpath also entered the Boston metropolitan area as a result of an acquisition of assets in June 2021 and entered the Miami metropolitan area in November 2022. The company’s Lightpath bandwidth connectivity service offers speeds up to 100 Gbps. Lightpath also provides managed services to businesses, including hosted telephony services (cloud based SIP-based private branch exchange), managed WiFi, managed desktop and server backup and managed collaboration services including audio and web conferencing. Through Lightpath, the company also offer fiber-to-the-tower (FTTT) services to wireless carriers for cell tower backhaul that enables wireline communications service providers to connect to towers that their own wireline networks do not reach. Lightpath's enterprise customers include companies in health care, financial, education, legal and professional services, and other industries, as well as the public sector and communication providers, incumbent local exchange carriers (ILEC), and competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC). As of December 31, 2022, Lightpath had approximately 13,500 locations connected to its fiber network, which currently includes approximately 20,200 miles of fiber sheaths (route miles) (approximately 10,000 owned route miles and approximately 10,200 route miles pursuant to an indefeasible right of use (IRU) from Altice USA). In December 2020, the company completed the sale of a 49.99% interest in its Lightpath fiber enterprise business (the Lightpath Transaction) based on an implied enterprise value of $3.2 billion. The company retained a 50.01% interest in the Lightpath business and maintained control of Cablevision Lightpath LLC (Lightpath), the entity holding the interest in the Lightpath business. Accordingly, the company continues to consolidate the operating results of the Lightpath business. In its footprint outside of the New York metropolitan area for enterprise and larger commercial customers, the company offers high capacity data services, including wide area networking and dedicated data access and advanced services, such as wireless mesh networks. The company also offers enterprise class telephone services, which include traditional multi-line phone service over DOCSIS and trunking solutions via SIP for its Primary Rate Interface (PRI) and SIP trunking applications. Similar to Lightpath, the company also offers FTTT services in these areas. These services are offered on a standalone basis or in bundles that are developed specifically for its commercial customers. SMB Customers The company provides broadband, video and telephony services to SMB customers. In addition to these services, the company also offers managed services, including hosted private branch exchange, managed WiFi, premiere technical support and network security for SMB customers. Telephony services include Optimum Voice for Business, Business Hosted Voice and Business Trunking (SIP and PRI). Optional telephony add-on services include international calling and toll free numbers. News and Advertising News 12 The company’s News 12 networks consist of seven 24-hour local news channels in the New York metropolitan area—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Connecticut, Hudson Valley, Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester—providing each with complete access to hyper-local breaking news, traffic, weather, sports, and more. News 12 also includes a streaming OTT regional news channel, News 12 New York. News 12 has been widely recognized by the news industry with numerous prestigious honors and awards, including multiple Emmy Awards, Edward R. Murrow Awards, NY Press Club Awards, and more. The company derives revenue from its News 12 networks for the sale of advertising and affiliation fees paid by cable operators. Cheddar Acquired in 2019, Cheddar News covers the latest headlines and trending topics across business, politics, tech, pop culture, and innovative products, and services. Cheddar News broadcasts live throughout the day across traditional linear television delivery systems and OTT platforms. i24NEWS Launched in July 2013, i24NEWS is an international news channel specializing in delivering international news focusing on the Middle East. i24NEWS' global news team covers top stories as they happen on three channels, in three languages: English, French and Arabic. a4 Advertising a4 is an award-winning multi-screen advertising sales agency and media consultancy business for SMBs, national brands, political candidates, and the media and entertainment industries. a4 works with advertisers to target households across the United States, using their proprietary technology and privacy-compliant database of aggregated consumer and TV viewership data. New York Interconnect In many markets, the company has entered into agreements commonly referred to as Interconnects with other cable operators to jointly sell local advertising. This simplifies the company’s clients' purchase of local advertising and expands their geographic reach. In some markets, the company represents the advertising sales efforts of other cable operators; in other markets, alternative cable operators represent the company. For example, NY Interconnect, LLC (NYI) is a joint venture between Altice USA, Charter and Comcast. NYI provides a wide range of television and digital advertising opportunities for brands looking to reach over 7.6 million households and more than 22 million people across the New York designated market area. Franchises As of December 31, 2022, the company’s systems operated in more than 1,400 communities pursuant to franchises, permits and similar authorizations issued by state and local governmental authorities. Franchise agreements typically require the payment of franchise fees and contain regulatory provisions addressing, among other things, service quality, cable service to schools and other public institutions, insurance and indemnity. Franchise authorities generally charge a franchise fee of not more than 5% of certain of its cable service revenues that are derived from the operation of the system within such locality. The company generally pass the franchise fee on to its customers. Franchise agreements are usually for a term of five to fifteen years from the date of grant, however, approximately 490 of Altice USA’s communities are located in states (Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas) where by law franchise agreements do not have an expiration date. Franchise agreements are usually terminable only if the cable operator fails to comply with material provisions and then only after the franchising authority complies with substantive and procedural protections afforded by the franchise agreement and federal and state law. Prior to the scheduled expiration of most franchises, the company generally initiate renewal proceedings with the granting authorities. This process usually takes less than three years but can take a longer period of time. Historically, the company has been able to renew its franchises without incurring significant costs, although any particular franchise may not be renewed on commercially favorable terms or otherwise. Programming The company designs its channel line-ups for each system according to demographics, programming contract requirements, market research, viewership, local programming preferences, channel capacity, competition, price sensitivity and local regulation. The company’s offering a wide variety of programming influences a customer's decision to subscribe to and retain its video services. The company obtains programming, including basic, expanded basic, digital, HD, 4K UHD, VOD and broadband content, from a number of suppliers, including broadcast and cable networks. The company generally carries cable networks pursuant to written programming contracts, which continue for a fixed period of time, usually from three to five years, and are subject to negotiated renewal. Cable network programming is usually made available to the company for a license fee, which is generally paid based on the number of customers who subscribe to the level of service that provides such programming. For home shopping channels, the company receives a percentage of the revenue attributable to its customers' purchases, as well as, in some instances, incentives for channel placement. The company typically seeks flexible distribution terms that would permit services to be made available in a variety of retail packages and on a variety of platforms and devices in order to maximize consumer choice. The company has programming contracts that have expired and others that will expire in the near term. The company will seek to renegotiate the terms of these agreements, but there can be no assurance that these agreements will be renewed on favorable or comparable terms. Sales and Marketing Sales and marketing are managed through multiple channels that allow the company to reach current and potential customers in a variety of ways, including through inbound call centers, outbound telemarketing, retail stores, e-commerce, and door-to-door sales. The company also uses mass media, including television, digital, radio, print and outdoor advertising, to attract potential customers and invite them to visit its website or call a service representative. The company’s sales and service teams use a variety of tools and technology to match customers' needs with its best-in-class connectivity products, with a focus on building and enhancing customer relationships. The company invests heavily in target marketing, due to its regional strategy and local focus. The company’s strategic priority is on building new customer relationships and expanding their use of its fixed, mobile, video and voice offerings, delivering innovative solutions matched to their needs. Most of its marketing is developed centrally then customized regionally, tailoring to local audiences. The company has a diverse customer base, and a key focus of its is to effectively serve a broad range of segments, and to reflect its community’s diversity within marketing materials and advertisements. The company also gives back to its communities through initiatives and sponsorships focused on digital equity, future innovators (educational programs related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and robotics) and SMBs. Among other factors, the company monitors customer perceptions, sales and marketing impact, and competition, to increase its responsiveness to customer needs and measure the effectiveness of its efforts. The company’s footprint also has several large college markets where the company market specialized products and services for students who live in multiple dwelling units (MDUs), such as dormitories and apartments. Beyond serving consumers, the company has separate dedicated sales, marketing and service team for its SMB, mid-market, and enterprise customers. Customer Experience The company’s call center strategy is to demonstrate that it are reliable support experts, that are simple to interact with and work to the best of its ability to resolve the issue. Accordingly, the company makes a concerted effort to continually improve each customer interaction and have made significant investments in its people, processes and technology to enhance its customers' experience and to reduce the need for customers to contact it. From a call center operations standpoint, the company provides technical and account support service to its customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the company has systems that allow its customer care centers to be accessed and managed remotely in the event that systems functionality is temporarily lost, which provides its customers access to customer service with limited disruption. The company continues to work on simplifying and improving its agent toolset to better serve its customer needs. The company also offers its customers the ability to interact with it and get support through digital channels, whether via its website, online chat, interactive voice support, mobile app, or social media (Twitter and Facebook). Customers can use its customer portal website to manage and pay their bill online, obtain service and account information, and get self-help troubleshooting procedures. Network Management The company’s cable systems are generally designed with an HFC architecture that has proven to be highly flexible in meeting the increasing needs of its customers. The company delivers its signals via laser-fed fiber optic cable from control centers known as headends and hubs to individual nodes. As of December 31, 2022, approximately 95% of the company’s basic video customers were served by systems with a capacity of at least 750 MHz and 242 homes per node. The company has upgraded its networks, both through the deployment of its fiber to the home network and through new DOCSIS technologies, and the company is delivering speeds of up to 1 Gbps in many areas of its footprint. More than 99% of its residential broadband Internet customers are connected to its national backbone with a presence in major carrier access points in Ashburn, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New York, New Jersey, Phoenix and San Jose. The company also has a networking caching architecture that places highly viewed Internet traffic from the largest Internet-based content providers at the edge of the network closest to the customer to reduce bandwidth requirements across its national backbone, thus reducing operating expense. This collective network architecture also provides the company with the capability to manage traffic across several Internet access points, thus helping to ensure Internet access redundancy and quality of service for its customers. Additionally, the company’s national backbone connects most of its systems, which allows for an efficient and economical deployment of services from its centralized platforms that include telephone, VOD, network DVR, common video content, broadband Internet, hosted business solutions, provisioning, e-mail and other related services. The company’s ongoing FTTH network build, with planned upgrades, passing over 2.1 million homes as of December 31, 2022, will enable the company to deliver multi-gig broadband speeds to meet the growing data needs of residential and business customers. The company has also focused on system reliability and disaster recovery as part of its national backbone and primary system strategy. For example, to help ensure a high level of reliability of its services, the company implemented redundant power capability, as well as fiber route and carrier diversity in its networks serving most of its customers. With respect to disaster recovery, the company invested in its telephone platform architecture for geo-redundancy to minimize downtime in the event of a disaster to any single facility. In addition, the company continues to expand and refine its bandwidth utilization in capacity constrained systems in order to meet demand for new and improved advanced services. To support its mobile business, the company has a nationwide mobile core network with five main interconnection points (Texas, California, Illinois, and two in New York), as well as the necessary interconnection points for its network partners T-Mobile and AT&T Inc. (AT&T), Appalachian Wireless and US Cellular. Information Technology The company’s IT systems consist of billing, customer relationship management, business and operational support and sales force management systems. The company continues to update and simplify its IT infrastructure through further investments, focusing on cost efficiencies, improved system reliability, functionality and scalability and enhancing the ability of its IT infrastructure to meet its ongoing business objectives. Additionally, through investment in its IT platforms and focus on process improvement, the company has simplified and harmonized its service offering bundles and improved its technical service delivery and customer service capabilities. The company contracts with managed service providers to deliver certain core Business Support Systems and Operations Support Systems. These services are integrated into its overall IT ecosystems to ensure an efficient operation. Backup services are provided through alternate systems and infrastructure. Suppliers Customer Premise and Network Equipment The company buys HD, HD/DVRs and VOD equipment, routers, including the components of its home communications platform, and other network equipment from a limited number of suppliers, including Altice Labs (Altice Europe's technology, services and innovation center), Sagemcom and Ubee. Mobile Voice and Data Equipment The company purchases for resale mobile handsets from a number of original equipment manufacturers, including Apple, Samsung, Motorola and TCL. Intellectual Property The company relies on its access to the proprietary technology of Altice Europe, including through Altice Labs, and licenses to the name Altice and derivatives from Next Alt. Competition Broadband Services Competition The company’s broadband services face competition from broadband communications companies' digital subscriber line (DSL), FTTH/Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) and wireless broadband offerings, as well as from a variety of companies that offer other forms of online services, including satellite-based broadband services. AT&T, Frontier Communications Corporation (Frontier) and Verizon Communications Inc.'s (Verizon) Fios are the company’s primary fiber-based competitors. The company face intense competition from broadband communications companies with fiber-based networks. Verizon has constructed a FTTH network that passes a significant number of households in its New York metropolitan service area; and AT&T has constructed an FTTP/Fiber to the Node (FTTN) infrastructure in various markets in its south-central United States service area. The company estimates that Verizon is able to sell a fiber-based service, including broadband, video and telephony, to over two-thirds of the households in its New York metropolitan service area and that AT&T and new fiber-based service providers are able to sell fiber products to over one-quarter of the households in various markets in its south-central United States service area. Frontier offers DSL and FTTH broadband service and competes with the company in most of its Connecticut service area, as well as parts of its Texas and West Virginia service areas. Video Services Competition The company’s video services face competition from cable providers, as well as direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, such as DirecTV (which is co-owned by AT&T) and DISH Network Corporation (DISH). DirecTV and DISH offer one-way satellite-delivered pre-packaged programming services that are received by relatively small and inexpensive receiving dishes. The company’s video services also face competition from a number of other sources, including companies that deliver movies, television shows and other video programming, including extensive on demand, live content, serials, exclusive and original content, over broadband Internet connections to televisions, computers, tablets and mobile devices, such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime, Sling TV, DirecTV Stream and others. In addition, the company’s programming partners continue to launch direct to consumer streaming products, delivering content to consumers that was formerly only available via video, such as Discovery+, Disney+, HBO Max and Paramount+. Telephony Services Competition The company’s telephony service competes with wireline, wireless and VoIP phone service providers, such as Vonage, Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp and magicJack, as well as companies that sell phone cards at a cost per minute for both national and international service. Mobile Wireless Competition The company’s mobile wireless service, launched in September 2019, faces competition from a number of national incumbent network-based mobile service providers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon and smaller regional service providers, as well as a number of reseller or MVNO providers, such as Tracfone, Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless, among others. Business Services Competition The company operates in highly competitive business telecommunications market and compete primarily with local incumbent telephone companies, especially AT&T, Frontier, Lumen Technologies, Inc. (Lumen) and Verizon, as well as with a variety of other national and regional business services competitors. Advertising Services Competition The company competes for advertising revenue against, among others, local broadcast stations, national cable and broadcast networks, radio stations, print media, social network platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram), and online advertising companies (such as Google), content providers (such as Disney) and connected TV providers. Regulation The Communications Act of 1934, as amended (Communications Act), and the rules, regulations and policies of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as other federal, state and other laws governing cable television, communications, consumer protection, privacy and related matters, affect significant aspects of the operations of the company’s cable, related and other services. The company’s CLEC subsidiaries' telecommunications services are subject to other FCC requirements, including protecting the use and disclosure of customer proprietary network information; meeting certain notice requirements in the event of service termination; compliance with disabilities access requirements; compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act standards; outage reporting; and the payment of fees to fund local number portability administration; and the North American Numbering Plan. Communications with the company’s customers are also subject to FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, and state regulations on telemarketing and the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail and fax messages, as well as additional privacy and data security requirements. The company’s provision of Internet services subjects the company to the limitations on use and disclosure of user communications and records contained in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The company’s i24 operation has employees and offices in the European Union that are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation. History Altice USA, Inc. was founded in 2015. The company was incorporated in 2015 in Delaware.

Country
Industry:
Cable and other pay Television services
Founded:
2015
IPO Date:
06/22/2017
ISIN Number:
I_US02156K1034
Address:
1 Court Square West, Long Island City, New York, 11101, United States
Phone Number
516 803 2300

Key Executives

CEO:
Mathew, Dennis
CFO
Sirota, Marc
COO:
Data Unavailable