- Cable operators are accelerating network upgrades because they can dramatically increase speeds at relatively low cost while improving reliability and visibility
- Vecima's Entra Intelligence platform uses AI agents to proactively identify network issues, recommend fixes and automate operational workflows
- The company expects newer products, including virtual CMTS and next-generation fiber technologies, to account for a growing share of revenue over the next several years
After reporting the strongest quarter in its history, Vecima Networks arrived at SCTE TechExpo with a message focused less on AI hype and more on practical applications.
President and COO Clay McCreery told Fierce Network the company's biggest new initiative is Entra Intelligence, an AI-driven platform designed to help operators proactively manage their networks. The launch builds on technology Vecima gained through a recent acquisition and earlier investments in orchestration software.
"We basically are just applying AI agents over the top of all of these mobile cores, cable cores, fiber cores to help proactively manage a network," McCreery said.
The platform can identify noise, service impairments and other network problems, alert operations teams and recommend corrective actions. In some cases, the system can automate ticket creation and remediation workflows.
"This has been something we've been working on for a couple of years," McCreery said. "Customers are going out with little modules and pieces, but this is the full sort of unveiling of the whole solution."
Beyond AI, Vecima is putting significant emphasis on fiber evolution. While demand for 50-gigabit residential service remains limited today, McCreery said operators can use 50G technology as a future-proofing strategy.
Future-proofing the network
"Right now, nobody" needs 50-gig service at home, he said, echoing what Vistance Networks told Fierce at the show. But deploying the technology now allows operators to prepare for future capacity demands without replacing existing equipment.
On the cable side, McCreery said operators continue to invest aggressively in DOCSIS upgrades because the economics remain compelling. Indeed, recent data from Dell'Oro Group showed cable spending on distributed access architecture (DAA) equipment jumped 40% year on year in Q1 2026 while remote-PHY and remote-OLT spending rose 63% in Q2, driven by DOCSIS 4.0 and network upgrades.
Operators can boost upstream speeds from roughly 40 Mbps to 1 Gbps and increase downstream capacity to 10 Gbps while spending only "somewhere between $100 to $300 per pass," McCreery said.
Reliability is an equally important driver. "They have zero tolerance for outages," he added. New digital architectures provide greater network visibility and create the data foundation needed for AI-based automation tools.
The strategy appears to be paying off. Vecima recently reported record quarterly revenue of CAD 91 million and adjusted EBITDA of CAD18.9 million, driven largely by growing demand for its distributed access architecture portfolio and broadband products. According to McCreery, the momentum is likely to continue as operators prepare networks for increasing AI-driven traffic demands.
"The wire always wins," he said, arguing that fixed broadband infrastructure will remain critical as AI applications place greater demands on network capacity.
Read more about Vecima Networks, SCTE TechExpo and AI on Fierce Network:
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