Ziply Fiber said today that it is launching 5 Gbps and 2 Gbps symmetrical service in 60 markets in the Northwest. In a pre-briefing with Telecompetitor, Ziply General Manager Chris Denzin said the 5 Gbps service will sell for $300 a month and the 2 Gbps service will sell for $120 monthly with no data caps or contracts, although customers will have to sign up for paperless auto-pay service.
Ziply also will offer symmetrical 50 Mbps, 200 Mbps and 1 Gbps service. The company is using XGS-PON technology to support the services, Denzin said.
Ziply is the company owned by WaveDivision Capital that purchased Frontier operations in the Northwest in 2020.
According to Denzin, Ziply did a soft launch of the multigigabit services in December and based on that, he estimates that between 1% and 3% of customers will purchase the highest speed services this year – a percentage that will grow over time.
“Not everybody has multigigabit capable speeds in their laptop, home computer or smart devices,” he observed. As equipment supporting those speeds becomes more commonplace, more customers will be interested in the highest-speed services, he said.
Denzin expects the highest-speed services to appeal to IT professionals, online gamers, people who upload Tik Tok videos and others.
Some of the markets that will be getting multigigabit services previously were served via GPON. Those existing fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks will be upgraded to XGS-PON. In other markets, Ziply had DSL infrastructure, which was overbuilt with FTTP infrastructure.
Ziply has committed to investing $500 million in its network, and all new fiber builds will be multigigabit capable, Denzin said. Some Montana markets are on tap for the first quarter of this year.
“Our goal is to have the most innovative fiber technology,” he said. “We’re enabling technology that nobody else has.”
According to a press release, some of the markets where Ziply 5 Gbps and 2 Gbps service will be available are:
- Washington – Albion, Bothell, Brier, Camas, Edmonds, Everett, Garfield, Kenmore, Kirkland, Lynnwood, Marysville, Oakesdale, Palouse, Pullman, Redmond, Rosalia, Sedro-Woolley, Snohomish, Sultan, Tekoa and Woodland
- Oregon – Beaverton, Cornelius, Dayton, Dundee, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Lafayette, Lake Oswego, McMinnville, Newberg, Portland, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville
- Idaho – Blanchard, Bonners Ferry, Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Weippe
Ziply should be getting a cash infusion soon from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program, which will cover some of the costs of bringing broadband to areas that currently lack service. In December, the FCC said it was ready to approve Ziply’s long-form RDOF application.
