WideOpenWest (WOW!) took a big step toward the finish line on its rollout of DOCSIS 3.1 with launches in several more markets.

The latest WOW! markets to join the D3.1 list include Panama City and Pinellas, Fla.; Chicago and Naperville, Ill; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Charleston, S.C.; Augusta and West Point, Ga.; Valley, Ala.; and Detroit.

WOW! announced last November that it expected to wrap up its DOCSIS 3.1 deployments, which enable 1-Gbps broadband service (in the downstream direction) for both residential and business customers, to about 95% of its footprint by Q1 2018.

RELATED: WOW! to Complete 1-Gig Rollout in Q1 2018

WOW! initially launched the service in four markets in the fall of 2016 -- Auburn and Huntsville, Ala.; Evansville, Ind.; and Knoxville, Tenn., and has since followed with expansions into areas such as Grosse Point Shores, Mich.; and Marysville, Parma Heights, and North Ridgeville, Ohio.

WOW! expects to launch D3.1 in two more cities (likely sometime next month) and hit the 95% footprint deployment milestone, an official said.

The company has been rolling out 1-Gig service on HFC using DOCSIS 3.1 and the Arris E6000 converged cable access platform, but is also starting to use a new virtualized Distributed Access platform from Nokia as the operator looks to mine more capacity from its HFC network in certain scenarios. 

RELATED: WOW! Rolls with Nokia's Distributed Access Platform 

WOW! has been selling the 1-Gig residential service (paired with an upstream of 50 Mbps) for $79.99 per month as a stand-alone with a two-year contract, or $89.99 per month without a contract. WOW!’s 1-Gig service comes at lower prices when bundled with other WOW services. As an important differentiator, WOW’s gigabit offering is uncapped.

RELATED: WOW!: We’ll Stay Cap Free

Atlantic Broadband launched its 1 Gigabit per second high speed data service for both residential and business customers in Connecticut Friday.

The residential service – called GigaEdge – and commercial offering Pro GigaEdge, is now available to about 37,000 homes and businesses passed in eastern Connecticut communities including East Lyme, New London, Niantic, Montville, Oakdale, Quaker Hill, Uncasville and Waterford.  

Atlantic Broadband launched the new offerings today at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London. The launch event featured local government and business leaders and gave local residents the opportunity to demo GigaEdge.

“As we celebrate nearly one year of serving eastern Connecticut, we are tremendously proud to bring GigaEdge and Pro GigaEdge to the region,” said Atlantic Broadband Connecticut region vice president and general manager Charles Hanley in a statement. “We are committed to continuing to provide the fastest Internet speeds, the most complete entertainment, and the best hands-on local service to the communities we serve.”

Pricing for GigaEdge starts at $89.99 per month and $249.99 per month for Pro GigaEdge.

While Gigbit service is usually more suited to commercial customers, Atlantic Broadband president and chief revenue officer David Isenberg said in an interview that the operator expects to see strong interest in the product on the residential side.

“What we have seen as we have been talking to customers is that this is going to be a more mainstream offering in the residential market sooner than people think,” Isenberg said. “The reason is that today families live their lives online. When we asked people why they wanted this, we heard pretty commonly, ‘I have three kids, they’re all streaming stuff at different times; I need to do my work at home.’ It’s really about enabling families to do everything they need to do at once. We’re looking forward to strong demand on the residential side.”

The pricing of the product also should help drive residential demand – the $89.99 price tag is promotional for one year and then the service returns to its regular price of $119 per month.

The Connecticut rollout is the first system-wide DOCSIS deployment of a 1 Gbps service for Atlantic Broadband. The company plans to make the service available in Miami next, part of a $6 million infrastructure improvement program the company announced earlier.

Atlantic Broadband purchased the Connecticut system from Metro-Cast last year, and ABB parent, Canadian telecom company Cogeco Communications has said it is interested in adding further to its U.S. footprint. Isenberg said Cogeco hasn’t changed that stance and the Connecticut operation is a prime example its intentions – a year after closing the MetroCast deal it increased data speeds right away, launched TiVo and is now launching 1-Gig service.

“This is a case study of exactly what we want to do,” Isenberg said.  

Additionally, Atlantic Broadband has also launched new residential and business Internet services in the GigaEdge footprint (East Lyme, New London, Niantic, Montville, Oakdale, Quaker Hill, Uncasville, and Waterford) with new offerings and speeds, with its fastest speeds going from 120 Mbps/10 Mbps to 1 Gigabit or 1,000 Mbps/50 Mbps.

Less than three months after closing its $9.1 billion purchase of Suddenlink Communications, Altice N.V. has recommitted to the mid-sized operator’s ultra-high speed data upgrade – dubbed Operation GigaSpeed – promising that customers in at least 250 communities will have access to 1 Gigabit-per-second service by year end.

Suddenlink first announced Operation GigaSpeed in 2014, promising to invest about $250 million to bring 1-Gbps service to 90% of its footprint by 2017. Deployments began in 2015.

The European telecom giant – which also is in the middle of the approval process for its $17.7 billion purchase of Cablevision Systems – is reaffirming its commitment to the Suddenlink program, Altice USA co-president and chief financial officer Charles Stewart said.

“It [Operation GigaSpeed] fits perfectly with Altice’s ownership philosophy,” Stewart said in an interview. “Investment in infrastructure is at the heart of our business model.”

Stewart said Altice has earmarked more than $4 billion for infrastructure investment throughout its worldwide footprint, including Suddenlink.

Operation GigaSpeed was a pet project of Suddenlink founder and former CEO Jerry Kent – who is remaining an adviser to Altice – to bring big-city data speeds to rural America. Altice said that as the 1-Gbps service is being made available, more than 70% of Suddenlink Internet customers should have access to speeds of 400 Megabits per second or greater. Additional GigaSpeed deployments are expected in 2017, rounding out the nearly quarter-billion dollar total investment supporting the program.

The focus on speed could make its way to Altice’s other U.S. outlet – Cablevision Systems – if that deal is approved by regulators. Altice has said it expects to close the deal in the first half of the year, and is confident it will make that deadline.

“For Cablevision, it’s too early to be precise,” Stewart said. “But I think it’s reasonable to expect that we are going to focus on network  investment and speed.”

Part of the controversy around the Cablevision deal has been Altice’s claim it could cut $900 million in costs out of the business over time. While an increased network  investment would seem to contradict that goal, Stewart said they go hand in hand, adding that any reduction in costs for repairs and maintenance would result in increased efficiencies could mean more money for network improvements.

The need for speed is evident in its Suddenlink markets. While Altice rolls out GigaSpeed, it also plans to upgrade other services, resulting in standard offerings of up to 50, 100, and 200 Mbps, plus 1 Gigabit. Local business owners are also provided access to the Gigabit service, along with customized, multi-Gigabit services that the company has offered for years.

Altice also has plans to introduce a home gateway device in Suddenlink markets that enables all services -- TV, Internet, and phone. No timeframe has been set as to when that product will see daylight.