McAdam: No Cable Deals for Verizon

After months of speculation putting it with every conceivable cable company out there, Verizon chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam told an industry audience Thursday that the telco isn’t interested in merging with a cable operator, adding he’d rather spend the money on fiber.

“We’ve moved on,” McAdam said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference Sept. 14. “About a year ago we went through a process of looking at cable companies, but the fiber infrastructure isn’t there. …To pull out a lot of coax and put in the fiber, I’d rather just put in the fiber.”

The telco’s recent actions appear to back that up. Last month Verizon ponied up $225 million topurchase WideOpenWest’s fiber assets in Chicagoand in May itoutbid rival AT&T for Straight Pathas part of its efforts to build out 5G technology.

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