Comcast today announced the launch of a Nashville gigabit trial using DOCSIS 3.1 technology. The cable company is calling the launch an ¨an advanced consumer trial of Gigabit Internet service.”
Nashville is the second city in which Comcast is leveraging its investment in new-generation DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem technology to roll out gigabit Internet service. Atlanta was the first.
The Atlanta rollout was announced earlier this year.
Nashville Gigabit Plans
Initial Comcast Nashville Gigabit customers will have the choice of paying a promotional contract price of $70 per month for 36 months or an ¨everyday price¨ of $139.95 per month, the cable MSO explains in a press release.
The cable MSO deployed its first hybrid fiber-coax DOCSIS 3.1-based residential Gigabit Internet service trial in Philadelphia last December. Deployment in Atlanta followed a few days later. In addition to roll outs in Atlanta and Nashville, Comcast early this year announced plans to roll residential gigabit services out in Chicago, Detroit and Miami in this year’s second half.
Gigabit War Rolls On
Comcast executives publicly revealed some of the company’s two-tier residential gigabit service pricing strategy back in March. “We’re delivering on our promise to make Nashville customers among the first in the world to enjoy this new Gigabit technology,” Comcast Regional SVP Doug Guthrie was quoted in a press release. “The capabilities of DOCSIS 3.1 are incredibly exciting, and we are proud to be the first to market with a Gigabit offering that runs over our existing cable infrastructure.”
The February 2016 announcement that Comcast would roll out gigabit Internet services in major U.S. cities added fuel to the brewing ¨Gigabit Wars¨ that have been cropping up in growing numbers of U.S. cities and states. Both Atlanta and Nashville are also on Alphabet’s Google Fiber roadmap. AT&T is already offering its GigaPower, service in those cities as well.
Comcast ‘s FTTH-based Gigabit Pro service — introduced last year — is now available to some 18 million homes, which are in most of the markets where Comcast is now rolling out its Xfinity gigabit service, management highlights. Gigabit Pro is a relatively expensive FTTH offer that can cost as much as $1,000 to install, however.
