Continuing the trend of cable companies providing free speed upgrades in order to match competitors’ offerings, TDS Telecommunications is increasing download speeds to 18,000 subscribers in St. George, UT.
Although best known as a telecom company, TDS operates cable HFC/DOCSIS networks in some markets.
The company says that St. George customers whose service was below 100 Mbps now are at that level and customers who were getting 100 Mbps service now will have access to 300 Mbps connectivity. New modems may be necessary to support the speed increases.
TDS’s upgrade of the network to DOCSIS 3.1 has enabled speeds as fast as 1 Gbps. St. George is in the southern region of the state. TDS says that it has invested more than $150 million in the network since it was acquired in 2013 from Baja Broadband.
“This positive development reflects our commitment to our customers in the St. George area,” Drew Petersen, TDS’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, said in a press release. “We know online demands are increasing and our customers deserve reliable high-speed internet.”
TDS joins a growing list of cable companies that are raising their speeds without charging customers more.
Four of the announcements were in March:
- Comcast made several changes to both the upstream and downstream in its Extreme Pro, Blast!, Performance Pro, Performance and Performance Starter tiers. The changes impact 14 northeastern states and the District of Columbia.
- Mediacom increased download speeds to more than 900,000 subscribers to its Xtream Internet service. Its Access Internet 60 download speeds increased from 60 Mbps to 100 Mbps, Internet 100 increased from 100 Mbps to 200 Mbps and Internet 300 increased from 300 Mbps to 400 Mbps. In addition, its Connect2Compete Plus service, which is aimed at low-income households, doubled from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps. The service is available to households that qualify for the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
- Charter doubled its entry level speeds in 33 markets that reach about 3 million subscribers to 200 Mbps. That now is the entry level speed across the company’s entire 41-state footprint.
- Cox said that it will increase its speeds from 150 Mbps to 250 Mbps on its Cox Preferred broadband tier, which is its most popular.
- In mid-February Breezeline – formerly Atlantic Broadband – got the ball rolling when it increased speeds to more than 125,000 customers. The speed of its 50 Mbps service and 100 Mbps services both were doubled and its 400 Mbps Internet increased to 500 Mbps
