In most cases, a cable system has a local business office, a variety of technical facilities including the cable network itself and possibly a local warehouse where materials and spare parts are kept. Larger cable systems will be much more complex than what I ve described here, and may serve several communities in a geographical area. During cable s early years, many cable systems were operated as stand-alone businesses, often owned by local investors. As the industry grew, independent cable systems merged or were acquired by other companies. Indeed, most cable systems today are owned by one of several MSOs.
Most cable networks have five major components.
The first is the antenna site, which is a location chosen to provide optimum reception of some of the TV channels carried on the network. The antenna site may be located on a remote mountaintop, a tall structure such as a water tower or dedicated communications tower or even on the cable system s business office roof. If the antenna site is on a remote mountaintop or similar location, it s necessary to transport signals from that antenna site to the community being served. This is where the transportation network, the second cable system component, is used. If it s one of the latter two, it s called a fibre or coax supertrunk.