Suddenlink, the St. Louis based rural cable MSO, announced the expansion of what it claims is “nation’s fastest residential Internet service,” 107 Mb/s, to additional markets in Texas. The 107 Mb/s capability is impressive, but as a Telecompetitor commenter pointed out to us, it’s not the fastest residential broadband tier in the country – but I digress. New markets to receive the DOCSIS 3.0 (D3) powered service include Tyler and Whitehouse, Texas.
Suddenlink also announced the expansion of a lesser D3 powered broadband tier of 50 Mb/s to additional markets in Louisiana and Missouri. These moves are a part of Suddenlink’s network upgrade project called Project Imagine, which among other things, aims to increase HD channel capacity and expand D3 capability.
We probably can’t draw a direct correlation between Project Imagine and Suddenlink’s recent operational success. But these efforts certainly don’t hurt as evidenced by Suddenlink’s recent increase of 92,000 revenue generating units in the past quarter, the most in the company’s history.
there is very little info about whether these 100+ mb plans have any impact. anyone seen any actual adoption numbers. my impression is they are very low because they cost so much
Low? Probably, however in these markets the 107M service is the only way that you're able to get 5 Mbps up unless you pay several hundred bucks per month for bonded T1 or fiber (actually, probably more like $1000 per month). SO $120 per month isn't bad by comparison, though when i checked out internet in Pflugerville SL wan't selling the 107M tier to business customers.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if SL has only gotten a few hundred customers in their entire footprint on the service, but each customer is an extra $40-$60 per month that SL is raking in over their otherwise top tier of 20 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up. Also, heavy downloaders (or a rented house with a bunch of college students inside, sucking down newsgroups as fast as they can) will jump for this plan because there's no more waiting involved. Plus they can call any friends in NYC (or other Cablevision areas) and say "my internet is faster than yours."
With the new launch markets, SL is allowing many thousands (or tends of thousands) of customers access to the new tier, which might get them another thousand or two adds because they aren't competing against FiOS in any of their footprint. More customers in a situation like this (where you have bandwidth to spare in these newly upgraded markets anyway) is never a bad thing…
Yeah but even so….it all comes down to cost. Not many people are looking for faster speeds but what it cost!!! Times are hard people dont want faster speeds they want a good price and better efficiency. If u give me 20m at a decent price ill jump on it but if u offer a faster speed which is just over kill probably not!!! Even if the price was reasonible, I still wouldnt buy it!!! Bottom line is, its out of most people's budget. There is a saying about marketing. If u have the clout then sell it low, more people will buy and thus will increase sells and most marketers cant grasp this fact. Look at Wal-Mart they done it for years and hmmm look where they are. There clout is gigantic!!! I dont think anymore needs to be said. Ive stated it!!!