Mediacom Communications is going “one louder” on super-fast broadband, as Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel might say.
The fastest residential broadband in North America may soon be available from Mediacom in Waterloo, Iowa, as the operator gears up to launch an ultra-fast broadband service of 105 Mbps — dubbed “Ultra 105″ — by the end of the year, delivered via DOCSIS 3.0, according to a report in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Previously, the broadband speed title was claimed by Cablevision Systems, which debuted the 101-Mbps Optimum Online Ultra service in April. Canada’s Shaw Communications has hit the 100-Mbps mark and Comcast offers a 100-Mbps business tier in certain markets.
Mediacom wanted the 105-Mbps download speed “to put Waterloo on the digital map,” the Courier reported. Aside from that, the town may be best known nationally for the flood of June 2008, during which the Cedar River crested at a record 27.01 feet.
In addition to the 105-Mbps tier, Mediacom expects to offer a 50 Mbps down / 5 Mbps up service. The operator is still considering how to price the higher-speed tiers.
Mediacom selected Waterloo for the launch because “the physical network in place is very robust,” Mike Kohler, the MSO’s division vice president of government relations, told the Courier. He also said the Waterloo city council amended Mediacom’s franchise agreement allowing the company to move government access channels to its digital lineup, which freed up spectrum for the DOCSIS 3.0 launch.
