After beginning its DOCSIS 3.1 rollout in Atlanta in March, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has begun the second leg of the deployment, with DOCSIS 3.1-powered 1 gig service trials kicking off in Nashville, Tenn.
Customers participating in the trial who sign up for a three-year contract will pay $70 a month for 1 Gbps broadband downstream (and 35 Mbps upstream) service. They can also enlist without contract for $140 a month. Those who sign up for a contract won't have usage caps. Those who do not will be capped at 1 terabyte of data per month.
At least initially, Comcast isn't making the service available to everyone in Nashville — customers and aspiring subscribers can visit this site to determine whether they are eligible.
"We're delivering on our promise to make Nashville customers among the first in the world to enjoy this new Gigabit technology," said Comcast Regional SVP Doug Guthrie, in a statement. "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."
Comcast is the first U.S. MSO to aggressively deploy DOCSIS 3.1 services, as it looks to head off 1-gig competition from companies including Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG) and AT&T (NYSE: T).
Initially available in Atlanta and soon Nashville, Comcast will bring its gigabit service to Chicago, Detroit, and Miami in the second half of the year. The cable MSO plans to target residential and business customers with the service, which runs over its existing hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) plant.
For more:
- read this Comcast press release
- read this DSL Reports story
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