Comcast Ups Cable’s Gigabit Parade

Cable’s plan to deliver gigabit broadband speeds to residential customers has been in the formative stages for years as improved technology is making wide-scale deployment more possible. But even before the next generation software platform known as Gigasphere is market ready, several cable operators are pushing ahead with significant gigabit offerings.

Last year Brighthouse announced it would be bringing gigabit broadband to homes in Tampa, Florida. Then Cox starting offering residential gigabit service in Phoenix and Southern CaliforniaNow Comcastannounced that it will be bringing not just one gigabit, but up to two gigabits to 1.5 million homes in and around Atlanta.

Comcast has been delivering multi-gigabit broadband (up to 10 Gbps) to businesses since 2010, but this is their first jump into gigabit speeds for residential customers. Comcast’s blog reports, “Comcast has been doubling the capacity of its network at least every 18 months and, with the introduction of Gigabit Pro, the company has now increased speeds for its subscribers 14 times in the past 13 years.”

According to Comcast, Gigabit Pro is “a professional-grade residential fiber-to-the-home solution.” In other words, Gigasphere (or DOCSIS 3.1) isn’t the technology responsible for these speeds. However, Comcast reports DOCSIS 3.1 will offer scalable next generation 1 Gbps broadband starting in 2016 that will offer every Comcast customer gigabit speeds over their existing network.

Comcast continues by saying, “Over the coming months and years you can expect us to be aggressive, but deliberate, about rolling out gigabit and multi-gig services across the country.”