Comcast said it’s increasing the maximum advertised speeds for its customers across Utah to in excess of 1 gigabit per second after the cable operator ran a “trial test” in the region that achieved symmetrical 1.25 Gbps speeds across both upstream and downstream channels. 

The No. 1 U.S. MSO declared the test a “technical milestone” in the cable industry’s “10G” quest to one day deliver 10-gig symmetrical speeds, using technologies like network virtualization and distributed access architecture (DAA).

In order to realize the speed increase, Xfinity Gigabit customers will need a WiFi 6-capable xFi Advanced Gateway. In January, Comcast made a similar announcement in its Northeast region, saying that xFi-equipped customers could take advantage of 1.2 Gbps speeds, but a symmetrical component was not part of that announcement. 

In addition to bumping up speeds past 940 Mbps for Xfinity Gigabit customers in Utah, Comcast also said that Extreme Pro+ subscribers in the region will see their maximum download speeds climb from 600 Mbps to 800 Mbps. 

Performance Starter+ customers will get a download speed boost from 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps. The increases aren’t tied to any of the imminent price increases for these customers coming down the road. 

You mean, the last six years of gigabit-speed hype has been ... false advertising?

Comcast says it’s now delivering the fastest internet speeds over WiFi in the Northeast, after bumping up speeds and gateways for its 1-gig customers in 14 states.

The cable operator said it’s upgraded speeds for these customers from 1 Gbps to 1.2 Gbps, making it possible to achieve true gigabit-speed broadband over WiFi.

Comcast said it will also upgrade at no additional charge its gigabit customers who don’t already have WiFi 6-certified routers to xFi Advanced Gateway devices capable of gigabit speeds. 

With the changes, customers paying full freight for gig-speed Internet from Xfinity can now say they're actually getting 1,000 megabits per second. 

The rollout in Northeast markets “from Maine to Virginia to Washington, D.C.” started on Jan. 7, said Comcast, adding that it will take initiative and reach out to gig customers who don't have the right gear. The move comes as Comcast’s gigabit speed customers, perhaps more aware of SpeedTest.net than other customer cohorts, seem to be increasingly complaining that their pricey broadband service is delivering less than 1 Gbps. 

Comcast has offered gigabit-speed service to its entire footprint since 2018. The company hasn’t disclosed how many of its 30 million high-speed internet customers pay for 1 gig. But a recent study conducted by consultancy OpenVault found that only around 5.6% of U.S. cable broadband customers take 1 Gbps service. 

“We are hyper-focused on advancing our internet product with new innovation,” said Kevin Casey, president of Comcast’s Northeast Division, in a statement. “Now our customers can enjoy faster speeds, state-of-the art gateways with WiFi 6 technology, wall-to-wall WiFi coverage, personalized tools and controls, and advanced cybersecurity protection.” 

Before the cable industry worries too much about “10G,” maybe operators should prove they can sell just one “G,” huh?

According to the third quarter market report just published by OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J.-based company that provides cable operators and other internet service providers with data about their networks, only 5.63% of the U.S. broadband market subscribed to 1-gigabit-capable internet service in Q3. 

The biggest share of the pie, 36.4% according to OpenVault, are subscribers who take services with speeds ranging from 100 Mbps - 200 Mbps. Speeds of 50 Mbps - 75 Mbps are the next most popular (nearly 20%), followed by 200 Mbps - 400 Mbps (14%). 

It was six years ago that cable operators began an expensive upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 network technology standards, which enable 1 Gbps speeds (well, technically, 940 Mbps, which is what most 1-gig services actually deliver. Telcos including AT&T and Verizon have made their own expensive fiber-to-the-home investments.

But only a sliver of the U.S. broadband market is going large. 

Operators, of course, are already ramping up hype for the next iterations of their networks. Responding to the wireless industry's endless 5G hype parade, the cable industry, under an umbrella marketing initiative it calls “10G,” is at the very beginning of a massive investment cycle it says will one day enable its hybrid fiber-coax networks to deliver 10 Gbps speeds, simultaneously downstream and up. 

At virtual trade events, cable industry consortium CableLabs—which is the forefront of developing DOCSIS 4.0 and other technology specifications that will enable this transformation—reaches for futuristic use cases ranging from self-driving cars to holographic entertainment and communications. 

The essential message: This is the fancy way we will live. This is why we need these nice, expensive things.

Again, we'll probably get there someday. But it might help if more than 10% of customers knew what to do with 940 Mbps.

Certainly, the amount of data U.S. broadband homes are using keeps going up amid the pandemic. According to OpenVault, the average U.S. internet home used nearly 384 gigabytes of data in the third quarter, up 40% year over year, and increased slightly from the nearly 380 GB averaged in the second quarter. 

And as OpenVault also noted, the number of heavy internet users keeps increasing. Speaking during a webinar hosted by OpenVault to explain its latest quarterly report, company CEO Mark Trudeau said that within 2-3 years, 5%-10% of broadband subscribers will be “extreme power users” who consume more than 2 terabytes of data per month. Only about 1% of users fall into that category right now, OpenVault says. 

Gigabit-speed internet service options are finally seeing tangible market penetration, with broadband research and consultancy firm OpenVault reporting that 5% of U.S. broadband connections had speeds of 1 Gbps or higher as of the end of June.

That amounts to 133% year-over-year growth, according to the Hoboken, N.J.-based company.

Also read: Residential Internet Usage Surges 98% Amid COVID-19-related Social Distancing

About 61% of all high-speed internet subscribers in the U.S. now have connections of 100 Mbps or faster, a one-year increase of 27%, OpenVault added.

Usage Levels Off

Pandemic-era usage habits continue to drive data usage growth: Upstream data usage increased by 56% year-over-year in the second quarter, with users more engaged in activities such as videoconferencing.

But usage patterns are also leveling off a bit, since the early pandemic peak period around March. Total average data usage declined from 402 gigabytes per month to 380 GB in the second quarter—still up 36% over the average of 280 GB at the end of the second quarter of 2019.

Notably, in the second quarter, with usage caps removed by operators including Comcast, data consumption by customers on usage-based billing plans increased by nearly 42% year over year, from 262.9 GB to 372.8 GB. 

WideOpenWest has announced the continued expansion of its Ohio footrprint, adding availability of its triple-play services to the Cleveland suburb of Parma.

Residents in this market will have access to WOW’s full suite of services, including 1 Gbps broadband.

Parma is part of an Ohio footprint expansion initiated in 2017 by WOW, which has also opened shop in Lyndhurst, Mayfield Heights, Willowwick and Wickcliffe. With the expansion, WOW is now able to reach 200,000 Ohio residents.

Related: WOW Re-Ups Deal with Broadband Analytics Company OpenVault

“Our local teams have worked hard to offer our Internet, cable and phone services to 14 new Ohio communities in just under three years," said Greg Argetsinger, WOW’s VP of operations, in a statement. "We will continue to expand across Ohio, bringing choice and a better customer experience to all our neighbors."

Cable One said it is laying the groundwork for 1 Gig speeds in NewWave Communications systems acquired last year that added about 214,000 residential primary service units, a unit that includes video, voice and broadband, to its base.

RELATED: Cable One to Buy NewWave for $735M

To get ready for the 1-Gig launch, Cable One said it is in the process of supporting 32-channel bonding in the NewWave markets, which parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. Cable One said it plans to invest up to $60 million over three years on network upgrades and other enhancements in the NewWave markets.

About 95% of Cable One’s legacy footprint has access to its GigaONE service, which uses DOCSIS 3.0 technology. Cable One has been selling that service, which pairs a downstream of up to 1 Gbps with a 50 Mbps upstream capability, for $175 per month.

RELATED: Cable One Touts Gigabit Deployment Milestone

Cable One didn’t announce a specific timetable for 1-Gig launches in the NewWave systems, but said it has already been doubling available speeds in the majority of those markets, offering downstream speeds up to 200 Mbps.

“As customers continue to stream, download, and connect across multiple devices in their homes, we know that speed is key in satisfying this growing demand,” Julie Seff, vice president of residential services for Cable One, said in a statement. “Doubling speeds as well as launching Gigabit service will create more customer value and provide a superior high-speed internet experience for our customers.”

WOW is broadening its 1-Gig horizons as it extends the reach of DOCSIS 3.1-powered services in a handful of markets. 

Here’s the rundown:

-Edge-out expansions to communities in North Ridgeville (13,000 homes passed) and Parma Heights (8,200 homes passed), Ohio.

-The completion of a 1-Gig deployment to about 1,100 customers in Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.

-An expansion of 1-Gig service in Huntsville, Ala., where the offering is now available to 30,000 customers, about double the number it was available to when service was introduced there in October 2016.

RELATED: WOW!: We’ll Stay Cap Free

Last fall, WOW began to offer 1 Gbps (downstream) broadband service initially in four markets – Auburn and Huntsville, Ala., and Evansville, Ind.; and Knoxville, Tenn. It has been selling 1-Gig as a standalone (and uncapped) residential service for $70 per month, so long as customers agree to a two-year contract.

RELATED: WOW Raises $310M in IPO

Some 219 million people worldwide have 1-Gig speeds available to them, or about 3% of the globe’s population, Viavi Solutions estimated in its latest Gigabit Monitor, a database that tracks those deployments.

In all, there are about 603 gigabit internet deployments, up 72% since June 2019, Viavi found.

RELATED: North America Leads Gigabit Deployments: Study

Not much has changed since then with respect to regions that are seeing the greatest rate of 1-Gig deployment growth.

In the May 2017 iteration of the report, North America achieved the highest growth rate, at 57%.

The composition of deployments using FTTP worldwide led all architectures by a wide margin, at 91.01%, followed by HFC networks (5.26%), Viavi said, noting that cellular, at 3.65% now, will rise as operators start to test and deploy 5G-based 1-gig fixed wireless services. Viavi said 25 mobile operators are currently lab-testing 5G, with about a dozen progressing to field trials.

RELATED: Verizon Exec: ‘Meaningful’ 5G Deployments to Start in 2018

The study also found that there are 41 countries with gigabit internet service available in some form, with Singapore (95%) being the country with the highest percentage of the population covered, followed by South Korea (93%), Moldova (90%), and Portugal (64%).

Viavi updates the monitor regularly, basing it on its analysis of current and planned gigabit deployment data. The latest version also factors in population coverage estimates.

Comcast has teamed up with corporate cousin Universal Pictures to tout 1-Gig broadband alongside The Fate of the Furious, the latest film from the Fast & Furious franchise, that’s hitting theaters April 14.

The promo centers on a pair of Comcast customers who are under the pretext that they are getting a sneak peek of the new film in a drive-in cinema that turns out to get a drive-out cinema. The wild ride and bleeped-out moments that ensue can be seen below:

Comcast and Universal put it all together ahead of the film premiere, and as the operator continues to expand the reach of gigabit speeds delivered using DOCSIS 3.1.

RELATED: Comcast Sets DOCSIS 3.1 Expansion, Launches 1-Gig in Detroit

"Fast and Furious and Gigabit Internet are all about blistering, excessive speed. This provided the perfect partnership opportunity to create the most extreme entertainment experience," Sherri Davis, Xfinity's senior director of brand experience, said in a release about the promo. "Rather than trying to explain how fast Gig-speed is, we showed it, capturing two lucky customers on the most fast-and-furious ride of their lives.”

Altice USA said it has spooled up a 1 Gbps (downstream) broadband tier in its Kinston, N.C., market, which includes the city itself, as well as Lenoir and Wayne Counties, and Lagrange and Walnut Creek.

In addition to launching the 1 Gigabit Internet service over its DOCSIS network, Suddenlink is also boosting the speeds of some existing broadband tiers, with its 75 Mbps and 100 Mbps offerings moving up to 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps, respectively.

The standard Suddenlink residential internet download speeds in Kinston are now up to 50, 100, 200, and 400 Mbps, along with the up to 1 Gig service, said Altice USA, which closed its acquisition of Suddenlink in late 2015.

Those upgrades follow some other similar, recent ones in several other Suddenlink systems serving Bastrop, La.; Fort Ord, Calif.: as well as Bullhead City, Ariz.; Nacogdoches and Collin and Denton counties in Texas, Branson, Mo.; and Truckee, Calif.

While Suddenlink systems have been targeting 1-Gig speeds with DOCSIS technology, Altice USA is pursuing an ambitious FTTP upgrade strategy in the Optimum (former Cablevision Systems) footprint.

Update: Altice USA also plans to deploy FTTP to most of its Suddenlink footprint during its five-year deployment timeframe. .

RELATED: Altice USA In a ‘Unique Spot’ For FTTP Upgrade

Mediacom Communications said it has launched DOCSIS 3.1-fueled 1 Gbps broadband service across its Huntsville, Ala., service footprint and other areas where it serves residential and business customers in the northern part of the state and in southern Tennessee.

In addition to Huntsville, today’s launch also includes Madison County and Limestone County, Ala., and Giles County and Lincoln County, Tenn.

Huntsville continues to be a gigabit hotbed. Comcast announced this week that it plans to offer 1-Gig broadband there later this year using DOCSIS 3.1. Huntsville  is also home to  some fiber-based gigabit services from AT&T and from a local municipality that is teaming up with Google Fiber and other partners. 

The latest service launch follows last month’s launch of 1-Gig service across its Iowa footprint, and its announcement late last year 2016 that Mediacom would upgrade its network to D3.1 by the end of 2016.

RELATED: Mediacom Goes Big With DOCSIS 3.1

Last month, Mediacom said its 1-Gig (downstream) service,  paired with upstream speeds up to 50 Mbps, is priced at $139.99 per month as a standalone, along with “promotional package offers” that will also be announced at a later date.  Along with 1-Gig, Mediacom is also introducing a new 500 Mbps broadband service.

Mediacom’s DOCSIS 3.1-based 1-Gig offering comes with a monthly data limit of 6 terabytes before overage charges are applied ($10 for each additional bucket of 50 GB of usage). 

Mediacom’s plan is to bring gigabit broadband services to “virtually all” of the 3 million homes and businesses served in its 22 state footprint. So far, Mediacom has launched 1 Gbps service to more than 350 communities.

“In addition to enhancing speeds for residential and small business customers today, the Gigasphere platform we have deployed also lays the groundwork for offering multi-Gig services in the future,” Mediacom CTO JR Walden said, in a statement. “This next generation technology is an excellent complement to the Gigabit+ Fiber Solutions that Mediacom Business has been offering local businesses in our markets for many years.” 

BlueStream, an operator formerly known as Advanced Cable Communications, this week launched a 1-Gig broadband service and a new TiVo-powered video offering in Coral Springs, and Weston, Fla.

Blue Stream is selling the 1-Gig (downstream) service (with a 35 Mbps upstream)  for $59.95 per month for the first 24 months. The regular price for 1-Gig is $109.95 per month. 

The TiVo-based service allows subs to record up to six shows at once, and will be integrating access to OTT services like Netflix and YouTube this summer. 

“We are thrilled that we can now offer residents and businesses the fastest Internet speeds,” Joe Canavan, Blue Stream’s COO, said in a statement. “People are crying out for the fastest Internet and best TV experience, and as a local business, we are delighted to answer that call.”

Antietam Cable Television said it has launched Phase 2 of its 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home/business network by expanding it to the entire town of Boonsboro, Md.

That network, branded as Flight Gigabit, will pass an additional 5,000 homes and businesses in Boonsboro and additional areas of Washington County to be announced when it’s completed by this fall, the company said.

With Phase 2, Antietam Cable is adding $3 million of private equity, expanding its total investment to $6 million for Flight Internet, and a plan to extend access to more than 11,000 homes and businesses in 2017. Last year, the operator launched Phase 1 of Flight Gigabit to 6,000 homes and residences in Hagerstown. Antietam Cable has been asked about pricing on the operator's symmetrical 1-Gig product.

Update: Promotional pricing on the residential is $99 per month for the first year, and $199 per month for businesses for the first two years, a company official said. 

“We’re pleased to expand Flight Gigabit to all of Boonsboro and additional areas of Washington County. This is the right investment at the right time and will have a positive impact in the communities we serve,” Brian Lynch, president Antietam Cable, said in a statement. “Phase 2 is a continuation of Antietam’s commitment to enhance the lives of our customers with state of the art technology and the best customer experience."

Cable One recently launched its 1-Gig (downstream) residential service in Twin Falls, Idaho, as the MSO moves ahead on a plan to deploy gigabit residential service across most of its footprint by the end of 2016.

The launch of the operator’s “GigaONE” service follows recent debuts in Globe and Miami, Ariz.

To deliver GigaONE, Cable One is currently using DOCSIS 3.0 technology and modems that can bond up to 32 6-MHz-wide downstream channels. The service pairs a 1-Gig downstream with an upstream path that maxes out at 50 Mbps.

CableOne’s been selling the 1-Gig plan for $175 per month along with a 500 Gigabyte data plan. Cable One’s FAQ for GigaONE notes that additional data plans up to 2 terabytes are available. In 2013, Cable ONE eliminated a policy that charged extra when customers exceeded their monthly data usage caps. In its place is an “excessive use” policy that encourages customers to switch to a higher level of service if they exceed their data plan three or more times in a rolling 12-month period

"GigaONE will support the technology needs of the communities we serve, now and in the future," Joe Felbab, VP of marketing for Cable One, said in a statement. "We are excited to be able to offer Gigabit service to nearly 1.5 million homes in the markets we serve."

Cable One, which estimates it has invested more than $500 million over the past five years on network upgrades, serves about 700,000 customers in parts of 19 states. 

Tiny public utility Conway Corp., is the latest company to enter the ultra high-speed Internet arena, with plans to unveil a 1-Gigabit per second broadband service in Conway, Ark., in December.

Conway Corp. started operating the city-owned utility system 85 years ago. The company provides electric, water, wastewater, cable, Internet, telephone and security services within the Conway city limits.      

Conway Corp. plans to price the service at $94.95 per month.

“Internet usage has grown and will continue to as cloud-based products and services become more prevalent,” said Conway Corp. CEO Richard Arnold in a statement. “Gigabit download speeds seem a luxury today, but may be tomorrow’s necessity.”

Conway Corp. began offering broadband in 1997, after it completed construction on a city-wide fiber-coax network, a two-year project that cost $5.6 million. When the network went live, Conway Corp. said, it became the third company in the country and fifth in the world to offer high-speed, broadband cable Internet service.

“For several years, we have been on a strategic path toward gigabit service,” said chief technology officer Jason Hansen in a statement. “With this initiative, Conway Corp is embracing its position as an Internet technology leader.”

Conway, located about 30 miles northwest of capital city Little Rock, is home to a large student population with the University of Central Arkansas as well as two four-year liberal arts colleges. Major businesses in the area (popuation 63,816) include a Kimberly-Clark plant and an HP facility.

Applying some pressure to Charter Communications and Verizon Fios, competitive cabler RCN said it has introduced a DOCSIS 3.1-powered 1-Gig residential broadband service in New York City.

The service, offered in its “serviceable areas” in NYC, including Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, starts at $69.99 per month for the first 12 months. RCN has not announced what the pricing will be after that first year. The operator has set up a web page where prospective customers can check to see if 1-Gig is available in their respective neighborhoods. RCN introduced a 330 Mbps residential tier in NYC in late 2014.

The NYC 1-Gig debut, follows RCN’s recent announcement that it was closing in on a DOCSIS 3.1 launch in Chicago, where it competes with Comcast and AT&T. In Chicago, RCN is also touting a 1-Gig (downstream) service paired with an upstream that maxes at 20 Mbps for $69.99 per month for the first 12 months. RCN does not cap its residential broadband service.

RCN has not announced when it plans to extend D3.1 service to markets such as Boston, Lehigh Valley (Pa.), Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC.

But RCN is beating the competition to the punch with a residential 1-Gig service in NYC. Verizon Fios’s current high-end product delivers symmetrical speeds of 500 Mbps.  Prior to being acquired by Charter Communications, Time  Warner  Cable introduced a DOCSIS 3.0-based 300-Meg service in NYC as part of the MSO’s “Maxx” upgrades (those upgrades were put under review by Charter following the merger).

Altice, which competes with RCN to a smaller degree, recently launched a 300 Mbps residential high-speed Internet service in New York.

“1 Gigabit is a giant leap forward in Internet technology and RCN is the first provider to offer this new service at an affordable price to residents of New York City,” Bruce Abbott, VP, and General Manager of RCN New York, said in a statement.

Watch this RCN promo about the new 1-Gig offering:

[embed]https://vimeo.com/184366440[/embed]

Cable One has launched 1-Gig broadband in Globe and Miami, Ariz., as the MSO pushes ahead with a plan to offer gigabit residential service across most of its markets by the end of 2016.

The offering, called GigaONE, currently relies on DOCSIS 3.0 technology and modems that can bond up to 32 6-MHz-wide downstream channels.

GigaONE, which pairs a 1 Gbps downstream with an upstream that maxes out at 50 Mbps, sells for $175 per month and includes the MSO’s 500 Gigabyte data plan. Cable One’s FAQ for GigaONE notes that additional data plans up to 2 terabytes are available.

In 2013, Cable ONE eliminated a policy that charged extra when customers exceeded their monthly data usage caps. In its place is an “excessive use” policy that encourages customers to switch to a higher level of service if they exceed their data plan three or more times in a rolling 12-month period.

"GigaONE will support the technology needs of the communities we serve, now and in the future," Joe Felbab, VP of marketing for Cable One, said in a statement. "We are excited to be able to offer Gigabit service to nearly 1.5 million homes in the markets we serve."

Cable One noted that it has invested more than $500 million over the past five years on network upgrades and enhancements.

Other recent GigaONE launched include Anniston, Ala.; and Boise and Western Idaho. 

Taking a page from the Google Fiber playbook on pricing, RCN said it will “soon” launch a 1 Gbps (downstream) service in parts of Chicago for $69.99 per month for 12 months.

The service, which will use DOCSIS 3.1 technology, will initially be offered to RCN customers in Skokie and Lincolnwood. RCN has also set up a web site where interested customers can be alerted on when the service will become available to them.

RELATED: TPG Capital Puts Up $2.25B for RCN and Grande Communications

RCN’s introductory pricing for 1-Gig comes in just below the promotional price of $70 per month (with unlimited data) Comcast is using for its DOCSIS 3.1 gigabit consumer trial in Chicago for customers who agree to a three-year contract. The contract-free price is $139.00 per month. AT&T’s symmetrical 1-Gig offering in parts of  Chicago is being sold for $90 as a standalone, with a 12-month agreement and unlimited data.

RCN said its gigabit service in Chicago will have no contracts and caps. Multichannel News has asked RCN what the pricing will be after the initial 12 month period, and to detail the upstream speed customers are getting with the new D3.1 service, and will update the story when the info becomes available.

Update: RCN is pairing its 1-Gig downstream with an upstream that maxes out at 20 Mbps. It has not announced pricing following the initial 12-month period, but noted that customers will be notified of the change in the rate, which will remain "competitive" and also be based on how customers are bundling broadband with other RCN services. 

Comcast’s 1-Gig downstream D3.1 offering is currently paired with an upstream that maxes out at 35 Mbps.

RCN has not announced when it plans to extend D3.1 service to its other markets, which include Boston, Lehigh Valley (Pa.), New York City, Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC.

“The capacity provided by 1 Gigabit is massive, and it more than keeps up with the explosive growth of internet usage,” said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN. “Year-over-year internet usage is increasing 35-50 percent and the average home now has 7.8 internet-connected devices, which represents an increase of 64 million devices over the past year alone. This continued trend confirms that DOCSIS 3.1 is a critical technology for the future, enabling not only Gigabit internet speeds, but also future enhancements such as IP video and other advanced services. RCN remains committed to staying at the forefront of innovation to offer customers the fastest speeds, increased reliability and the best customer experience.”

CenturyLink and Lumiere Fiber are partnering to bring 1-Gig services to Sterling Ranch, a master-planned community in Colorado being built in the northwest Douglas County area.

CenturyLink, which competes in the market with Comcast, has signed on as the exclusive broadband provider for Sterling Ranch, a 3,400-acre community that will be built out over about 20 years with an estimated 12,000 residenances. CenturyLink said it marks the first time it will bring gigabit service to an entire community in Colorado.

Sterling Ranch is a 3,400-acre, master-planned community that will continue to be built out over approximately 20 years with an estimated 12,000 residences. 

The 1-Gig offering will be offered at a “special rate” of $85 per month, include a wireless access point, with the option to get CenturyLink’s IP-based Prism TV service.

The partnership was announced Monday at a recently opened CenturyLink Solutions Store in Denver. Colorado Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel and State Representative Kim Ransom joined CenturyLink and Sterling Ranch execs for the announcement. 

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, plans to reduce the staff for Google Fiber in half – from 1,000 to about 500 – amid rising costs and slower-than-expected subscriber growth, according to The Information (subscription required).

Google Fiber has not released subscriber figures, but the report said the division has about 200,000, putting it well below the pace required to reach a projected target of 5 million within five years. Google Fiber launched broadband and TV service in its first market, Kansas City, in July 2012. 

Google Fiber ended 2015 with just north of 53,000 video subs, per MoffettNathanson’s analysis of data from the U.S. Copyright Office. Those numbers don’t factor in Google Fiber’s broadband sub numbers, which should be higher considering that the service provider tends to lead with its $70 1-Gig broadband offering.

Google has been asked for comment on the report.

Update: Google declined to comment on the report. Light Reading, citing a person with knowledge of the situation, said Thursday that the report of drastic cutbacks at Google Fiber are false. 

The report from The Information does come about as Google Fiber explores the use of wireless-based high-speed Internet technologies, which could reduce expenses while speeding the acceleration of deployment. Google’s interest in wireless was seemingly amplified when it acquired Webpass, a company that specializes in wireless broadband delivery in markets such as San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Miami, Chicago and Boston.

Though Google Fiber has reportedly put some expansion plans on hold in Portland and San Jose as it weighs wireless alternatives, it did launch service sign-ups in portions of Salt Lake City this week.

Google Fiber has also launched service in parts of Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta; Kansas City; and Provo, Utah, with commitments to deploy in San Antonio; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It’s been mulling expansions in Los Angeles; Chicago; Dallas; Portland, Ore.; San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla. Google Fiber also has plans to offer service on a network being built by Huntsville Utilities.

“Other Bets,” the unit of Alphabet that includes Google Fiber and other longer-term “moonshot”  projects, generated Q2 revenues of $185 million, up from $74 million a year ago, while operating losses widened to $709 million, from $555 million.

Altice USA said it has launched 1-Gbps broadband service in two more Suddenlink territories – Alexandra and Pineville, La., while also boosting the speeds of certain other tiers for no additional cost.

In addition to the 1-Gig (downstream) residential offering in two areas, the operator has also bumped its 75 Mbps and 100 Mbps tiers to 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps, respectively. Suddenlink also offers a 50 Mbps service in those markets.

In Louisiana, Suddenlink also offers 1-Gig in areas such as Lake Charles and Sulphur, Bossier City. Suddenlink started to offer a DOCSIS 3.0-based 1-Gig service in July 2015 as part of a broader “Project GigaSpeed” initiative that envisioned offering gigabit speeds to 90% of Suddenlink's footprint by 2017. That initiative is continuing under Altice.

Suddenlink has been asked for pricing details in the new 1-Gig markets. In other areas, it’s been selling standalone 1-Gig (paired with a 50 Mbps upstream) for about $109 per month, and for less when bundled with other services. In April, Suddenlink added an unlimited data option for its two fastest tiers in a given market. Those complement the MSO's usage-based plans that charge extra ($10 for an additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes) when customers exceed their monthly limit a third time. 

Update: Suddenlink confirmed that 1-Gig pricing is uniform across markets, and that the price on stand-alone 1-Gig is now $99 per month. 

“Today’s announcement is the next step in Operation GigaSpeed, the company-wide plan we announced in August of 2014,” Altice USA Vice President of Suddenlink Operations Robbie Lee said, in a statement. “In sharp contrast to other large providers, which are offering a Gigabit service primarily to a few neighborhoods in large urban markets, we’re pleased to be making our Suddenlink Gigabit service available in all of the neighborhoods and to all of the households and businesses we serve throughout Alexandria and Pineville.” 

Comcast confirmed it will launch a 1 Gbps (downstream) consumer pilot offering in Chicago on Wednesday (August 17) powered by DOCSIS 3.1.

The debut, first reported by the Chicago Tribune, will mark Comcast’s third market to rollout DOCSIS 3.1, cable’s multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks, and will follow trials already underwayin Atlanta and Nashville.

Like those earlier launches in Atlanta and Nashville, the rollout in Chicago is also considered an “advanced consumer trial,” a Comcast official confirmed.

Comcast also announced plans to DOCSIS 3.1-based broadband service in Detroit and Miami later this year.

Comcast will sell 1-Gig in Chicago for $139.95 per month during the trial, but will also be testing promotional pricing in that region, with more specifics to be announced, an MSO official said. 

In Atlanta and Nashville, Comcast has been advertising a service that maxes out at 1 Gbps downstream and 35 Mbps upstream for $70 per month to customers who agree to a three-year contract, or a contract-free price of $139.95 per month.

Update: The promotional offer being tested in Chicago is $70 per month, plus unlimited data, when customers sign up for a 36-month contract, mirroring the promotional pricing the operator is piloting in Atlanta and Nashville. Comcast also operates a web site where customers can register to be alerted when the 1-Gig offering is available to them. 

Chicago is also the site of Comcast data-usage trial that limits monthly usage at 1 Terabyte, with the option to purchase additional buckets of 50 GBs of data for $10 each (up to a maximum of $200), or move to a new unlimited data plan that runs an additional $50 per month.  Comcast started to trial that plan in greater Chicago and its Northern Indiana systems on August 1 (subscription required). 

In Chicago, Comcast is sparring with AT&T, which launched its fiber-based GigaPower platform in parts of Chicago in 2015.

Comcast also offers a symmetrical 2 Gbps “Gigabit Pro” residential service in the Windy City that uses targeted deployments of fiber-to-the-premises technology and starts at $299.95 per month, with a two-year contract. 

AT&T said it has launched fiber-based GigaPower services in portions of two more markets – Cleveland, Ohio; and Sacramento, Calif.

In Sacramento, GigaPower is initially being targeted to Placer County (Lincoln, Rocklin, Roseville and surrounding communities); in Cleveland, the launches cover parts of the city, as well as Bedford Heights, Bedford, Shaker Heights and some surrounding communities.

In both new launch markets, AT&T GigaPower’s 1 Gbps standalone service starts at $90 per month, when customers agree to participate in AT&T Internet Preferences, the company’s targeted Web advertising service. Customers can also bundle in pay TV service from DirecTV or U-verse TV.

AT&T said its GigaPower network is currently available in over 2.2 million locations across 29 of the nation’s largest metro areas, and reiterated it has plans to expand 1-Gig to parts of 27 more areas and eventually reach 14 million residential and commercial locations with its fiber-based network.

AT&T also launched 1-Gig to businesses in the Cleveland area, including Cleveland-Elyria, Canton-Massillon, Findlay, Dayton, Columbus, Springfield, Akron, Toledo, Sandusky, Cincinnati and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman market areas.

There are more than 500 operational or planned deployments of gigabit Internet services, with about 234 underway in the United States, test and measurement specialist Viavi found in a new Gigabit Monitor that will keep a running tab on those totals.

Viavi, which launched its visual database of global mobile, cable and telecom service deployments, said there are at least 350 “live” gigabit deployments on a global basis, with another 164 announced or underway using a mix of technologies, including GPON, DOCSIS 3.1, G.fast, LTE-A, (pre-standard) 5G and 802.11ac.

By technology platform, GPON, with 255 deployments, was well out in front, followed by DOCSIS 3.0 (37), Ethernet (30), LTE-A (10) and DOCSIS 3.1 (9). Looked at another way, 85% of the known gigabit deployments are based on fiber networks, versus 11% on hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks.

By region, North American had the largest share, at 61%, followed by Europe (24%), with the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and South America sharing the remaining 15%.

Viavi found that more than 70% of the live gigabit deployments being tracked were launched since the start of 2015.

Viavi noted that its Gigabit Monitor data can be viewed by geography or technology, and whether a service is Announced (service provider has publicly announced deployment plans in a given market), Under Construction (network build is underway), in Trial (a limited live network is in operation) or Commercial (service is currently available to consumers).

However, the database is not intended to be an “exhaustive resource,” noting that it’s based on publicly available data. Notably, ISPs marketing speeds “up to 1 Gbps” were not included.

The company said it will update the database “regularly,” and welcomes new submission or corrections.

AT&T has launched its fiber-based GigaPower services platform in parts of St. Louis, where the telco tangles with incumbent MSO Charter Communications.

AT&T said GigaPower, which delivers up to 1 Gbps, is now available in portions of the city, along with St. Charles and University City, with more areas to be added in the region by the end of the year. AT&T announced it would add St. Louis to its GigaPower mix in November 2015.

AT&T’s 1-Gig  offering there starts at $90 per month for subs who participate in AT&T Internet Preferences, the company’s targeted Web advertising program. Customers have the option to bundle in the pay TV packages from DirecTV (acquired by AT&T in July 2015), or U-verse TV.  

AT&T recently moved its GigaPower service to an unlimited data plan. U-verse Internet subs on tiers of up to 300 Mbps have moved to a 1-terabyte monthly data plan, paying $10 for additional buckets of 50 gigabytes, and also have the option to purchase an unlimited plan for an additional $30 per month.  Customers who bundle U-verse Internet with U-verse TV or DirecTV service and pay for services on a single bill, still get unlimited home Internet data for no additional charge.

AT&T said its GigaPower network now reaches 2.2 million locations across 27 metros, and still has plans to add 29 more. All in, the plan is to deliver GigaPower to 14 million residential and commercial locations, the telco said.

WideOpenWest (WOW) will be joining the gigabit club when it lights up those speeds in five U.S. markets by the end of 2016 – Huntsville and Auburn, Ala.; Evansville, Ind.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.

Those markets represent about 10% of WOW’s footprint, said Steven Cochran, WOW’s CEO, noting that the plan is to expand access to 1-Gig speeds to additional markets in 2017.

“We have a plan over the next couple of years to continue to increase speeds,” he said. WOW is also rolling out a new 600 Mbps service next week (more details on that further below).

WOW will announce pricing on the new 1-Gig service in those markets closer to launch (the MSO will be offering it as a standalone service and as a service bundle). WOW is using the “Gigtopia” brand for its new, speedier offering, and has launched a website where customers can register to be alerted when 1-Gig becomes available to them.

WOW will be using DOCSIS 3.1 technology to deliver 1 Gbps down by 50 Mbps up on its HFC networks in those initial markets. The operator’s primary network platform for D3.1 will be the Arris E6000 Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), and is currently evaluating modem vendors.  Six modem vendors have achieved DOCSIS 3.1 certification – Arris (for a retail model), Askey, CastleNet, Netgear, Sagemcom, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive.

In Grosse Point Shores, WOW is expanding its footprint using GPON-based fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, and will be offering symmetrical 1-Gig capabilities on that portion of its network. WOW said Grosse Point Shores represents its largest investing to date in FTTH.

Notably, WOW is not implementing usage-based pricing for broadband on any of its speed tiers, including the coming 1-Gig offerings.

“For the time being, we don’t see a lot of value in it,” Cochran said. “Somewhere down the road it may make sense, but, from where we stand right now, we've been able to have a pretty compelling offering to our customers without having to put that in.”

Cochran said WOW’s HFC plant in markets such as Evansville, Knoxville and Auburn were already built out to 860 MHz or 1 GHz, so they already had capacity required to accommodate a 1-Gig service. WOW’s launch of 1-Gig in Huntsville is more of a competitive response – there, AT&T is expanding its fiber-based GigaPower platform, and Google Fiber is preparing to offer gigabit broadband and TV services that will ride a new muni-owned network. Comcast also serves Huntsville. 

WOW said it will be the first provider in Evansville and Auburn to bring 1-Gig to residential and small business customers.

Because most consumers don’t need 1-Gig yet, Cochran doesn’t expect it to generate a big take rate early on.

“To us, at least initially, it's a signal of the quality of offering we're able to provide…We're not going down a path of trying to force everyone into a gig if that's not what they need at this time,” he said, noting that home automation and other IP-based apps and services will continue to drive up speed requirements.

WOW also has plans to replace its current high-end DOCSIS 3.0-based 300 Mbps service with a 600 Mbps offering starting next Tuesday (August 16) across about 90% of its footprint. That will complement WOW’s existing tiers that deliver downstream speeds of 30 Mbps, 60 Mbps and 110 Mbps.

Cochran said 60 Mbps is currently the speed tier with the highest sell-in. 

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Google Fiber, and all the hype that goes with them, 1 Gbps represents the speed target that most ISPs are now shooting for, regardless of whether the vast majority of consumers actually need it in order to fulfill their video streaming needs and other broadband-intensive tasks.

CenturyLink does offer 1-Gig to residential customers in some areas, but likewise believes that 100 Mbps provides plenty of headroom for even the heaviest use-cases.

The company spent some time discussing this on its Q2 call on Wednesday, and presented a slide showing a use-case in which 75 Mbps was enough to handle two 4K streams, four HD streams alongside some other Internet activities.

“As you can see, even in this relatively high usage case, which is well beyond the vast majority of users' activity, [those needs] can be met with speeds of less than 100 megabits,” Glen Post, president and CEO of CenturyLink, said. “And that aligns with our own experience. We see speeds of 40 megabits to 100 megabits as competitive today in virtually all of our markets.”

But he also acknowledged that the usage curve will continue to rise (virtual and augmented reality apps and services will take a big bite of bandwidth, if they turn out to be mainstream hits). CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney has previously outlined some potential use-cases for 1-Gig, such as a "fast synch" apps that require a massive burst of bandwidth, but not necessarily sustained 1 Gbps speeds.

“Certainly there be users who will seek the gigabit connection, but for the vast majority of consumers, we see 100 megabits or 200 megabits as being more than sufficient to meet market demand for a number of years,” Post said.

CenturyLink, which is starting to test usage-based broadband policies, expects to enable speeds of 40 Mbps or more to 85% of its top 25 markets by the end of 2018 (or about 10.5 million addressable “units”), and north of 55% of those markets (or 7 million units) with 100 Mbps-plus by that time. 

By the end of 2019, CenturyLink is gunning for 11 million addressable broadband-enabled units to have 100 Mbps speeds or greater, and about 3 million with access to 1 Gbps or more.

He promised that “a lot of that improvement” will happen over the next 12 to 18 months.

Alaskan MSO GCI said it has bumped the monthly limit of “Red,” its 1 Gbps residential cable modem service, from 750 gigabytes to 1 terabyte

Customers on Red, which is paired with an upstream that maxes out at 50 Mbps, have the option to purchase additional 30 GB buckets of data for $10 when they exceed their monthly limit.

Under a “No Worries” option launched in January 2015, customers have the option to buy additional buckets of data, upgrade to a different plan, or shift temporarily to a “basic” level of service of less than 1 Mbps with no overages.

GCI said its other No Worries Internet plans will also receive bigger data plans and faster speeds later this year. Currently, it’s 100 Mbps service is paired with a 300 GB limit, alongside 50 Mbps/150 GB, and 10 Mbps/40GB.

“GCI is excited to be the only company is Alaska offering 1 Gig speeds with a terabyte of data each month in communities all over the state - from Anchorage to Fairbanks to Juneau to Mat-Su,” Paul Landes, GCI’s SVP and GM, consumer services, said in a statement.

GCI currently offers the 1-Gig Red tier in Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Mat-Su Borough and Juneau.

Comcast is testing a 1-TB data policy and an unlimited data option in select markets.

Per the conditions tied to its acquisition of  Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications is prohibited from imposing data caps and usage-based data pricing for a period of seven years.

Google Fiber is considering Dallas as an expansion city for its 1-Gig broadband and pay TV services, possibly setting the stage for more competition there with Charter Communications, Grande Communications and AT&T.  

Google Fiber, which offers service in parts of Austin and has a buildout underway in San Antonio, has not made a firm commitment to deploy in Big D, but said it’s begun a joint planning process with the city, similar to the process it started last year with Chicago and Los Angeles.

“Bringing Google Fiber to Dallas would be a huge undertaking, so we want to make sure we’re prepared," Jill Szuchmacher, Google Fiber’s director of expansion, noted in this blog post. “Google Fiber Working alongside Mayor Mike Rawlings and local leaders, we’ll use our Fiber checklist to learn more about local topography, existing infrastructure, and other factors that may impact construction. Building a fiber optic network through a dense and complex urban environment like Dallas is challenging—these discussions will help us deploy our network efficiently and responsibly.”

In Dallas, Google will face off with Charter (via its acquisition of Time Warner Cable, which started its all-digital “Maxx” upgrades there back in 2015, and AT&T, which launched its fiber-based GigaPower service to parts of Dallas/Ft. Worth in 2014; and Grande Communications, which has also been pushing 1-Gig into several of its markets.

Google Fiber has also launched service in Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta; Kansas City; and Provo, Utah; and has committed to deploy in Salt Lake City; San Antonio; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

In addition to Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, Google Fiber is also mulling expansions in Portland, Ore.; San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

AT&T said it is launching its fiber-fed GigaPower platform in parts of two more markets – San Diego, Calif.; and El Paso, Texas.

Service is being offered in a sub-segment of those areas.

In the San Diego region, GigaPower is being offered in portions of Carlsbad, San Diego and San Marcos, as well as more than a dozen area apartments, including a master-planned community called Civita in Mission Valley.

There, AT&T said it is offering 1-Gig standalone service starting at $70 per month

AT&T GigaPower offers internet speeds up to 1Gbps for as low as $70 a month. That “Premier” tier is available to customers who participate in AT&T Internet Preferences, the company’s targeted Web advertising program.

For the deployment in El Paso, 1-Gig is starting at $90 per month.

AT&T said its GigaPower network currently reaches more than 1.6 million locations in 24 metro areas with plans to extend it to 32 more areas at 14 million residential and commercial locations.

The anticipated breadth of that rollout plan has drawn some skepticism. CSG Consulting, for example, is wondering how the budget AT&T has allotted for wireline is enough for it to reach its stated goals.

Following recent evidence that a launch was on the way, Comcast announced Monday that it has booted up an “advanced consumer” trial of DOCSIS 3.1 in Nashville, where the MSO is offering a 1 Gbps (downstream) service for $70 per month if customers agree to a three-year contract, or $139.95 without it.

For the trial, Comcast has set up a web site that provides more info about the trial and allows customers to sign up to be picked for it.

In Nashville, Comcast competes with AT&T, which launched its GigaPower service there last year. Google Fiber has a network buildout underway in Nashville.  

“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 launched a similar trial in March in Atlanta, and has announced plans to launch D3.1 in Chicago, Detroit and Miami later this year.

Which modems are part of the trial in Nashville was not immediately known, though a D3.1-certified product from Technicolor is involved in Comcast's Atlanta consumer trial. So far, six cable modem vendors have notched CableLabs certification for DOCSIS 3.1.

 In Nashville, Comcast also sells a symmetrical 2 Gbps residential service called Gigabit Pro that uses fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology.

Atlanta and Nashville are two of a group of select markets where Comcast is testing data-usage policies.

On June 1, Comcast moved ahead with a new trial policy that sets the monthly data limit at 1 Terabyte (1,024 gigabytes). Customers who exceed that limit can buy additional buckets of 50 GB of data for $10 each (with a limit of $200), or move to a new unlimited data plan that runs an additional $50 per month.

However, customers in Nashville and  Atlanta who pick the $70 per month promotional rate (the one with the 36-month commitment), the unlimited data option ($50 per month) is included in the plan.  Subs on the non-promotional rate will be subject to the usage-based policies noted above. 

Comcast's FTTP-based Gigabit Pro service is currently uncapped. 

AT&T has launched its fiber-based GigaPower platform in the tech-savvy Bay Area, reaching parts of San Francisco, San Jose, Dublin, Mountain View, Santa Clara and San Ramon.

Early on, AT&T is offering 1-Gig to nearly 30 apartment buildings in the region, including Lumina, a 655-unit residential waterfront condo in the Rincon Hill neighborhood. Notably,  Google Fiber has accelerated its its move into San Francisco by using existing fiber there to deliver services to certain apartments, condos and housing properties in the market. Comcast offers a symmetrical 2 Gbps residential service called Gigabit Pro in the Bay Area  that uses FTTP.

The latest batch of AT&T GigaPower deployments in the Bay Area are tacked on to the portions of Cupertino where at AT&T initially launched the fiber-fed service in 2015.

As for the latest deployment, customers in “tens of thousands of area homes, apartments and small businesses” in the Bay Area now have access to 1-Gig service delivered on the telco’s fiber-based GigaPower platform.

There, AT&T is offering 1-Gig standalone service starting at $70 per month.

AT&T, which merged with DirecTV last summer, said its GigaPower network is currently available in over 1.6 million locations across 22 U.S. metro areas, with plans to extend it to 34 more areas.

"By expanding GigaPower to additional cities in the Bay Area beyond Cupertino, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to our customers whose appetite for high speed data continues to grow,”Jeni Bell, vice president and general manager, Northern California and Northern Nevada at AT&T, said in a statement. “As the ways in which we communicate and seek entertainment become more data-intensive, our customers will benefit from our expansion of our GigaPower service.”

Google Fiber has quietly dropped a “Basic” Internet service in its first markets – Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. – that delivered 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up to customers who agreed to pay a “construction” fee up front, but is pushing ahead with plans to offer free gigabit service to public housing connected to its network. 

In Kansas City, Google Fiber still offers its 1-Gig standalone broadband service for $70 per month as well as a 1-Gig/TV combo starting at $130 per month (it’s currently waiving a $100 installation fee to customers who commit for a year), and now complements those with a “Fiber 100” offering that delivers symmetrical speeds of up 100 Mbps for $50 per month, via its same fiber-to-the-premises platform. All of Google Fiber’s broadband service plans remain cap-free. Although Google Fiber is dropping the free option for new customers in Kansas City, existing customers on that plan will reportedly be able to keep it. 

Google Fiber reasons that the Basic product has been criticized for not meeting the needs of consumers it was meant for, and that a new product that delivers free gigabit broadband service to all public housing properties that are connected to it network is a better approach to reach people who aren’t online today. That free option for qualified properties, Google Fiber confirmed, will be starting in Kansas City on May 19. Google Fiber announced that initiative in February, noting then that it was moving ahead to connect up to nine properties that serve more than 1,300 families in the area via the program.

Additionally, Google Fiber said it also believes that the launch of the new Fiber 100 service will provide a less expensive option for customers who may not be quite ready for 1-Gig.

In the meantime, Google Fiber is still promoting the free Basic service in markets such as Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah.  However, Basic is also not among the options in Atlanta, where Google Fiber is building its network,  but, early on, is using existing fiber infrastructure to reach select apartment buildings in the city.

Google Fiber, which recently introduced a landline phone service, has also committed to deploy in Salt Lake City; San Antonio; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It’s considering expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

Cox Communications has extended the reach of “G1GABLAST,” its residential 1-Gig broadband service, to parts of Middle Georgia, along with some speed upgrades of its existing high-speed Internet tiers.

Cox announced the launch earlier this week at the Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce in Warner Robins, near Tiffany Kensington, the first neighborhood in the state to get the new, faster service from the MSO. The operator has also introduced gigabit Internet service in other nearby areas, including South Bend in Bonaire.

Cox, which will use a mix of FTTP and DOCSIS 3.1 technologies as part of a plan to offer 1-Gig residential service in all markets by the end of this year, has already launched G1GABLAST in parts of the Phoenix; Orange County and San Diego; Hampton  Roads, Va.; Northwest Arkansas; Wichita, Kan.; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Okla.;  Las Vegas; Rhode Island; Baton Rouge; and Omaha. 

In Middle Georgia, Cox also bumped the speeds offered on its Premiere and Ultimate high speed Internet packages -- Ultimate download speeds will rise from 200 Mbps to 300 Mbps; while Premiere will rise from 100 Mbps to 150 Mbps. 

Following an initial foray into Los Angeles late last year, AT&T said it has expanded the reach of its fiber-based “GigaPower” platform to additional parts of the metro area spanning “tens of thousands of locations.”

The expansion, covering single family homes, apartments and small businesses, covers portions of Eastvale, Irvine, Los Angeles, and Orange County.

AT&T said it expects to triple availability of GigaPower in the area by the end of 2016, including Arcadia and Glendale.

In L.A., GigaPower’s standalone 1-Gig broadband service starts at $110 per month, or 300 Mbps starting at $80 per month, for customers on a “Premier” plan that requires participation in AT&T Internet Preferences, its targeted Web advertising program. Customers can also bolt on TV service from DirecTV or U-verse, and bundle in phone service.

AT&T said it has invested more than $2 billion in its L.A.-area wireless and wireline networks from 2012 to 2014.

AT&T noted that GigaPower is now offered in 20 metros (with plans to add another 36 metro areas), and ended 2015 with access to north of 1 million locations, a number that it intends to double by the end of the year. AT&T has not announced how many subscribers are on its GigaPower platform. 

Google Fiber announced plans to bring its mix of gigabit broadband and pay TV services to Salt Lake City about a year ago, and it’s now less than a year away from launching service there.

Google Fiber expects to light up services in portions of the city before the end of the year, according to Google  Utah’s Devon Baer, The Salt Lake City Tribute reported last week.

The updated launch plan came amid the opening of a new  Google Fiber store in Trolley Square.

Like it’s done in other cities, the ISP/TV provider will use a Fiber Rally deployment model to determine which parts of Salt Lake City get Google  Fiber services first. Specific deployment details will be shared via a Web site Google Fiber has set up for that market.

Google Fiber will be competing for customers there with incumbents Comcast and CenturyLink.

Google Fiber has already launched service to parts of Kansas City, Kan.; Kansas City, Mo.; Provo, Utah;  and Austin, Texas.

In addition to Salt Lake City, Google Fiber has also committed to deploy in Atlanta;  San  Antonio; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It’s considering expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

Google Fiber has also begun to accelerate its moves into some markets by tapping into existing infrastructure (in San Francisco and Atlanta, for example), or to offer service on municipally-owned fiber networks (as it’s set to do in Huntsville, Ala.).

Google Fiber ended 2015 with about 53,000 video subs, according to a MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett’s analysis of data culled from the U.S. Copyright Office.

AT&T said it has expanded the reach of GigaPower, its fiber-based 1-Gig platform for residential and business customers, to additional parts of five more markets:

-Chicago: Hampshire, Munster and St. John  (standalone 1-Gig starts at $110 per month)

-Miami: Coral Springs, North Miami and Tamarac (standalone 1-Gig starts at $110 per month)

-Dallas/Fort Worth: Richardson (standalone 1-Gig starts at $110 per month)

-Houston: Friendswood, Pearland, Manvel and Missouri City (standalone 1-Gig starts at $110 per month)

-San Antonio: Converse (standalone 1-Gig starts at $70 per month)

AT&T originally debuted GigaPower in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area on Aug. 14, 2014;  in Houston on April 6, 2015; in Chicago on April 20, 2015; in Miami on May 4, 2015; and in San Antonio on Sept. 28, 2015. 

AT&T, which acquired DirecTV last July, said it currently offers GigaPower to parts of 20 metros, with plans to expand it to 36 more.

Comcast has booted up an “advanced consumer trial” of a DOCSIS 3.1-powered 1 Gbps broadband service for early adopters in select parts of Atlanta ahead of an expected wider rollout in the city and in other markets around the country.  

Comcast said the service being tested in Atlanta, which pairs a 1-Gig downstream with an upstream that maxes out at 35 Mbps, is being offered under two pricing options – a promotional contract price of $70 per month for 36 months and unlimited data, and a no-contract price that runs $139.95 per month.  Comcast has been testing usage-based broadband policies in several markets, including Atlanta, but has not announced if it intends to make it a company-wide, commercial policy. Among the policies being tested is an "Unlimited Data Option" that costs an additional fee of $30 to $35 per month, depending on the market. 

Comcast said it intends to roll out 1-Gig services at addition price points in other markets as it tries to gauge consumer interest for gigabit speeds.

Last month, Comcast announced that it would rollout residential and business-class gigabit broadband using DOCSIS 3.1 in Atlanta and Nashville in “early 2016,” and follow with launches in Chicago, Detroit and Miami in the second half of the year.

Comcast said new and current customers in Atlanta can visit Xfinity.com/gig to learn about the new gigabit service and to request additional information on the trial as the service becomes more broadly available. Those selected will be among the first to kick the tires on a service that uses DOCSIS 3.1, a new multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks, and will be encouraged to provide Comcast with feedback on the service.

According to a WSB-TV, Atlanta neighborhoods that will be part of the trial include Brookhaven, Avondale Estates, Dunwoody, Decatur, Chamblee, Doraville, Sandy Springs, East Point, College Park, Midtown Atlanta, Buckhead, Alpharetta, English Avenue, Carver Hills and Roswell.

Comcast didn’t announce which modem vendors are taking part in the Atlanta D3.1 trial. However, five vendors -- Askey, Castle Net, Netgear, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive -- have achieved DOCSIS 3.1 certification from CableLabs for their respective cable modem products. Last month, Arris announced via its blog that the supplier's flagship cable access platform, the E6000 Converged Edge Router, is supporting Comcast D3.1 rollout in four of the five markets already identified by the cable operator. 

“Our Atlanta customers will be among the first in the world to enjoy this new Gigabit technology, and we’re looking forward to learning more from these early adopters about how they take advantage of these ultra-fast speeds,” Bill Connors, president of Comcast’s Central Division, said in a statement. “The capabilities of DOCSIS 3.1 are incredibly exciting, and we are the first to market with a Gigabit offering that runs over our existing cable infrastructure.”

Comcast also sells a symmetrical 2 Gbps residential service called Gigabit Pro that uses fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology. That uncapped service, which costs $299.95 per month, is currently available to 18 million homes (eligible homes must be within one-third of a mile of Comcast’s fiber network).

From a competitive standpoint, Google Fiber has begun to use some existing fiber infrastructure in the Atlanta area to deliver service to select apartment buildings in the city’s suburbs to seed the market ahead of a planned, broader network deployment in the area.  AT&T has also rolled out its fiber-based "GigaPower" service to parts of the Atlanta area ($70 per month for standalone 1-Gig, $120 when bundled with TV service, and $150 when combined with TV and U-verse voice).

Starry, the fixed-wireless broadband startup helmed by former Aereo founder Chet Kanojia, said it has hired former Google exec Kristen Morrissey Thiede to senior vice president of business development and corporate strategy.

Thiede will lead the business development and corporate strategy for Starry as it looks to build and expand its fixed wireless broadband network nationally and globally, and will also head up developing partnerships and alliances aimed at spurring growth. 

Thiede most recently served as an advisor at Metamorphic Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm and, before that, spent 14 years at Google, leading business development and content licensing for Google Fiber and early stage efforts such as Google.org's Crisis response team to Haiti, Chile, and Pakistan, and the launch of AdSense for Content and distribution efforts globally.

"We are thrilled to welcome Kristen to Starry, where her skills and experience will have a positive impact on day one," Kanojia said in a statement. "Kristen knows firsthand the challenges in building a broadband network and her experience and success with Google Fiber is a tremendous asset as we build out Starry Internet here in the U.S. and abroad. Our millimeter wave technology offers unlimited opportunities for growth, and we're excited for Kristen to help lead our expansion efforts."

"I've always been driven to take on big challenges," Thiede said, in a statement. "The Starry team is led by world class engineers developing some of the most innovative connectivity  technologies in the market today. Starry's development of an active phased array for millimeter waves is a game-changer that has the potential to solve connectivity challenges around the world. I'm excited to be a part of a passionate team of technologists willing to push big ideas and innovative technology forward."

Thiede holds a BA in political science from the University of the South. She was also identified as a Woman to Watch in 2015 by Multichannel News. 

Starry is developing a fixed-wireless broadband service that will rely on millimeter wave technology, a platform that, it claims, can deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps. The company, which has also introduced the Starry Station, a $349.99 WiFi-capable hub that features a 3.8-inch touchscreen. Starry expects to launch a beta of its Internet service in Boston this summer, and will add more cities to the mix throughout the year.

Google Fiber’s ambitions have drawn both bearish and bullish views from analysts, but new data from the U.S. Copyright Office shows that the initiative is not yet setting the world on fire, at least with respect to the number of video customers who have signed on so far. 

Google Fiber ended 2015 with just north of 53,000 video subs, according to a blog post from MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett that pointed to fresh data from the U.S. Copyright Office.

The number's a bit of a mixed bag. In Moffett's view, Google Fiber’s rate of video growth is strong, but should be stronger. 

“The number of subscribers to Google's fiber service remains astonishingly low,” Moffett noted. Though the percentage growth rate for Google Fiber is high, he said the surprise is that the growth rate isn’t higher.  "After all, there has been a steady stream of new cities announced, and they’ve now been at it for a long time in at least a handful of markets," he wrote. 

According to Moffett’s analysis, Google Fiber ended Q4 2015 with 53,390 video subs, up from 28,867 a year earlier. Among individual service areas, it ended the year with about 12,189 video subs in Kansas City, Kan., on a base of 53,925 homes in the city (22.6% penetration), a 16.8% penetration in Kansas City, Mo. (37,338 subs on a base of 221,860 homes in the city); and 8.2% penetration in Provo, Utah (2,718 subs on 33.212 homes).  Google Fiber, he found, also has 941 video subs in Austin, Texas.

The addition of fewer than 12,000 subs over a six month span “for a service that has generated this kind of fanfare isn’t terribly impressive,” he said, noting that Google Fiber now represents about 5/100ths of 1% of the U.S. pay TV market. “As a stand-alone entity, Google Fiber would be approximately 1/7th the size of the smallest distribution company in our firm’s coverage, Cable One.  They are 1/15th the size of Mediacom, and just over 1/70th the size of the new U.S. Altice (assuming Altice’s deal for Cablevision successfully closes).”

Of course, Google Fiber’s video numbers don’t provide the full picture of its true progress. After all, Google Fiber tends to lead with a standalone 1 Gbps service that costs $70 per month. It also offers a double-play (1 Gig and pay TV), and also offers a free basic Internet service (5 Mbps down by 1 Mbps up)  to customers who spring for the $300 construction fee.

Moffett said his findings are not a suggestion that Google isn’t “doing well,” and did note that the numbers don’t factor in broadband.

“[W]e presume that Google has many more broadband subscribers than video ones.  Still, this latest data is a useful barometer of just how slowly all this happens, and just how tiny Google Fiber remains in the grand scheme of things," he said. 

And he is puzzled at Google Fiber’s apparent lack of progress and low penetration in Provo, where it acquired iProvo, then the area’s municipal fiber service provider, for $1, plus a pledge to complete and expand on the buildout there.

“Over the past six months, they have added exactly 65 subscribers in Provo.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There are no decimal places missing," Moffett wrote, while later pointing out that Google Fiber represents a large piece of Alphabet’s “other bets.”

Those other bets, which include Google Fiber and moonshot project like self-driving cars, lost $3.56 billion in 2015, alongside revenues of $448 million.

But others who watch Google Fiber closely believe that the initiative is poised to make a serious dent in the market and become a profitable enterprise.

Incumbents, Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner warned in a recent research note, should not get “too complacent” in the face of Google’s slow and limited progress so far.

In a note issued today, Kirjner noted that Alphabet and Google CFO Ruth Porat made comments at an investor conference this week reiterating that the company is taking a long-term view with Google Fiber, expecting it to morph into a sustainable, stand-alone business.

Google Fiber has also been mixing up its game plan a bit, and has begun to complementing its expanding reach by tapping into existing infrastructure (in San Francisco and Atlanta, for example), or to ride on top of municipally-owned fiber networks (as it’s set to do in Huntsville, Ala.) to accelerate its ability to offer services.

And that’s on top of Google Fiber’s commitments to deploy in Salt Lake City, Utah; Atlanta;  Austin and San  Antonio, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It’s also mulling expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

But that’s still not enough to sway Moffett. “Over the past week, Google has made a number of splashy announcements,” he wrote. “Taken together, they have a rather provisional feel, as if the company is still experimenting. Or perhaps their goal is simply to showcase as many different models as they can think of, creating a menu of choices that they hope more and more municipalities will emulate (ideally without Google’s help).” 

Cox Communications said it has begun to roll out “G1GABLAST,” its 1 Gbps residential broadband service, in Tucson, Ariz., with an initial deployment set for The Place @ Presidio Trails, a new development with one- two- and three bedroom apartment homes.

Update: Cox will sell G1GABLAST in Tucson for  $119.99 per month as a standalone, and $99.99 per month when bundled with other Cox services. The offering includes a WiFi router, one terabyte of cloud storage, the Cox Security Suite and Family Protection service, and 10 email boxes (15 gigabytes of storage for each address).

Cox, which launched 1-Gig in Phoenix in 2014, said G1GABLAST is now live in parts of ten states, and that it’s on track to offer gigabit broadband in all markets by the end of 2016. Cox has also deployed G1GABLAST in parts of Oklahoma; Rhode Island; Las Vegas; Omaha; San Diego; Orange County; Baton Rouge; Hampton Roads, Va.; Northwest Arkansas; Wichita;  and Tulsa.

In the early going, Cox is using FTTP to deliver residential 1-Gig in select areas, but will also deliver those faster speeds on its more widely deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1 technology.

 “We are excited to deliver the choice of gigabit speeds to our customers,” said Cox Communications president Pat Esser, in a statement. “Coupled with our 250 employees in southern Arizona and more than 24,000 nationwide, our latest investments and the deployment of the fastest speeds available are powering economic growth and development for businesses and residents of the communities we serve.”

Taking a similar path it first paved in Atlanta, Google Fiber said it is accelerating its move into San Francisco by using existing fiber there to deliver services to certain apartments, condos and housing properties in the market.

“To date, we’ve focused mostly on building fiber-optic networks from scratch. Now, as Google Fiber grows, we’re looking for more ways to serve cities of different shapes and sizes,” Michael Slinger, director of business operations, Google Fiber, said in this blog post.

Also of note, Google Fiber announced this week that it will offer services on a planned municipal fiber network being built in Huntsville, Ala.

“By using existing fiber to connect some apartments and condos, as we’ve done before, we can bring service to residents more quickly. This approach will allow us to serve a portion of San Francisco, complementing the City’s ongoing efforts to bring abundant, high-speed Internet to the City by the Bay,” Slinger wrote.

Google Fiber has not announced details on service and the launch timeline in San Francisco, where it will compete with Comcast, which offers a symmetrical 2 Gbps residential service called Gigabit Pro that uses FTTP, and AT&T, which has tagged S.F. for expansion of its fiber-based GigaPower service. However, Google Fiber has set up a website where area residents can keep tabs on service deployment developments.

With San Francisco added in, Google Fiber said it has committed to bring its mix of gigabit and pay TV services to ten metro areas. Others on that list include parts of Kansas City; Provo, and Salt Lake City, Utah; Atlanta;  Austin and San  Antonio, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

Google Fiber is also exploring expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

AT&T said it has extended the reach of its fiber-based  GigaPower platform to more Nashville-area cities, including portions of Berry Hill, Brentwood and Hendersonville.

AT&T has already launched GigaPower and its 1-Gig capabiltires in other nearby cities and towns, including Clarksville, Franklin, Gallatin, Lebanon, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Smyrna, and Spring Hill.

In Nashville, AT&T competes with Comcast, which intends to launch DOCSIS 3.1-powered gigabit broadband service there later this year, and currently offers a symmetrical 2 Gbps offering called Gigabit Pro in the market using FTTP. Google Fiber is also deploying a network network there that will deliver a mix of gigabit broadband and pay TV services. 

GigaPower subs in these additional areas can also pair their broadband service with pay TV from U-verse or DirecTV, though AT&T, of late, has been steering new subs toward the lower-cost satellite TV platform. Those that opt for DirecTV will get immediate access to select TV content on compatible mobile devices via the DirecTV app – before installation – via the company’s “Walk out Watching” program.

Here’s how GigaPower pricing and packaging stacks up in this market:

•U-verse High Speed Internet Premier: Internet speeds up to 1Gbps starting at $70 a month.

•U-verse High Speed Internet Premier + TV: Up to 1Gbps, plus TV service starting at $120 per month.

•U-verse High Speed Internet Premier + TV + Voice: 1Gbps, plus TV and U-verse voice starting at $150 per month.

Subs who take the Premier plans agree to participate in AT&T Internet Preferences, the company's targeted Web advertising program.

AT&T said its GigaPower network currently spans more than 1 million “locations,” and that it expects to double availability by the end of 2016.

CenturyLink said it has lit up a fiber-based symmetrical 1 Gbps offering for multi-tenant unit office building in the Houston area, a launch that brings more commercial services competition to Comcast, the city's incumbent cable operator.

CenturyLink  said platform will offer a range of IP-based services, including multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), optical wave service, Ethernet and VoIP. More than 300 data centers and thousands of business locations are directly connected to CenturyLink’s 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and its 300,000-route-mile international transport network, the company said.

“Access to super-fast, reliable business broadband service is a determining factor for many companies when leasing office space,” said Laura Bacon Morgan, Houston MTU fiber program manager at CenturyLink, said in a statement. “CenturyLink consults with office building landlords and leasing agents who want to attract sophisticated, technology-driven business tenants. A business can quickly activate Internet service that meets or exceeds its connectivity requirements in a building that is pre-lit with CenturyLink fiber.”

Houston is the latest city to join CenturyLink’s 1-gig mix. Last May, the company announced it had made 1 Gbps FTTP services available to about 500,000 U.S. business locations.

AT&T said it has expanded service for AT&T  GigaPower, its fiber-based broadband platform for residential and small business customers to parts of four markets – Atlanta, Chicago, Miami and Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Here’s how the latest batch of GigaPower expansions breaks down:

-Atlanta,  including Buford, Jonesboro, Lawrenceville, Norcross, Roswell, Sugar Hill and Suwanee. Standalone 1-Gig service there starts at $70 per month, $120 per month with TV service, and $150 per month for a triple-play.

-Chicago, including Pingree Grove, Plano and Sugar Grove. In that market, standalone 1-Gig starts at $110 per month, while a pay TV bundle starts at $150 per month, and a triple-play bundle starting at $180 per month.

-Miami, including Cooper City, Miami Lakes, Miramar, Pembroke Pines and Plantation. GigaPower pricing there follows AT&T’s pricing for the Chicago area.

-Dallas/Ft. Worth, including Cedar Hill, Colleyville, DeSoto, Joshua, Keene, Keller, Lakeside, Little Elm and Roanoke. GigaPower pricing in Dallas/Ft. Worth mirrors AT&T’ pricing for Chicago.

Customers in those markets have the option to pair GigaPower with DirecTV or U-verse TV services.

Notably, Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami are among the initial handful of markets that Comcast has ticketed for DOCSIS 3.1 to deliver gigabit broadband on its widely deployed HFC network later this year. 

AT&T said GigaPower is now available in 20 major metros, and is moving forward on expansions that will extend service to parts of another 36.

Moving ahead on plan to trial DOCSIS 3.1 technology in Q4 2015, Comcast announced on its corporate blog Tuesday that it reached a milestone when it installed a D3.1-based modem on a “customer-facing network” in late November in its hometown of Philadelphia, and has since expanded those tests to a set of other markets.

“The next-generation technology that will deliver gigabit Internet speeds moved from the laboratory to the living room late last month when we installed what we believe to be the world’s first DOCSIS 3.1 modem on a customer-facing network,” Tony  Werner, Comcast’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, noted in the blog post. “Since installing the first live DOCSIS 3.1 modem here in Philadelphia, we’ve continued to expand the trials to additional locations in Pennsylvania, Northern California and Atlanta, Georgia,”

DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging CableLabs specification, has been designed to support capacities of up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps upstream, but the first wave of D3.1 modems, which will support both DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 3.0 traffic, will be capable of supporting about 5 Gbps down and 1 Gbps upstream when fully loaded. Comcast is currently offering residential gigabit speeds in several markets in a targeted fashion via Gigabit Pro, a symmetrical 2 Gbps service that relies on fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technologies. Comcast will greatly expand the reach of residential gigabit broadband when it rolls out DOCSIS 3.1 via its widely deployed hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network.

“The test used the standard cable connections that we have in homes across the country,” Werner wrote. “All we needed was a new modem, a software upgrade to the device that serves that neighborhood, and a few good engineers.”

The initial batch of trials, currently being targeted to an undisclosed number of employee homes in the aforementioned markets, is delivering downstream speeds of about 1 Gbps. 

Comcast previewed a D3.1-based “Gigabit Home Gateway” (pictured) in May at the INTX show in Chicago, noting that the new device was expected to go into production sometime this year. Werner’s blog post did not mention whose equipment Comcast is using for the trials. However, Arris and Taiwan’s Compal Electronics were the manufacturing partners involved in the D3.1-based device shown at INTX earlier this year, according to Light Reading.

Werner said Comcast will continue to test DOCSIS 3.1 in the “coming months, as we get ready to start delivering DOCSIS 3.1-powered service to our customers. Before the end of 2016, we will begin offering a new gigabit speed choice that works over the existing connections in our customers’ homes in several parts of the country.”

In the meantime, he said Comcast plans to activate more homes with DOCSIS 3.1 technology so the MSO “can observe how it performs in multiple real-world environments and make whatever minor modifications necessary to get it ready for deployment to our customers…We still have a lot of work to do, but these tests confirm that DOCSIS 3.1 will work over our existing network as currently configured.” 

In an announcement that could boost competition with incumbent providers such as Comcast and AT&T, Google Fiber said it’s exploring an expansion that would bring its 1-Gig and pay TV services to Chicago and Los Angeles.

Google Fiber has invited authorities in those cities to explore the idea after the provider refined its buildout checklist.

“Now, we’re ready to use that same process to work with two of the biggest cities in the country, Jill Szuchmacher, director of Google Fiber expansion, said Tuesday in this blog post.  "Home to a combined 6+ million people, Chicago and L.A. are the two largest metros we’ve engaged with to date.”

The exploration and reach out with those cities are a “big step” in the process, she added, but noted that there’s no guarantee that Google Fiber will launch in Chicago and/or L.A.

But if it does, it will amp up competition in those markets.

In L.A., Google Fiber would come up against Time Warner Cable, the area’s primary MSO incumbent that’s merging with Charter Communications, and AT&T, which recently identified Los Angeles as an expansion site for its fiber-fed GigaPower platform. In June, the city of Los Angeles approved a request for participants (RFP) as part of the CityLinkLA project  to identify one or more providers to commit to deploying wireline and WiFi networks that can deliver speeds of 1 Gbps, and complete the job within the next five years.

In Chicago, Google Fiber would tangle with overbuilder RCN, and Comcast, which has introduced its 2 Gbps “Gigabit Pro” FTTP offering in the Windy City. AT&T has also launched GigaPower to parts of Chicago.

Google Fiber currently offers service in three markets – Kansas City; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas; and has buildouts underway in Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte.

Google Fiber’s also exploring buildouts in Portland, Ore.; San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

Google Fiber has not released subscriber counts for its gigabit broadband and pay TV services, but Bernstein Researchestimated recently that it has between 100,000 to 120,000 paid subs, and that its network currently passes about 427,000 homes and 96,000 business locations.

With its merger with DirecTV long closed, AT&T has begun to apply more focus on its GigaPower platform, announcing Monday that it will expand the reach of its fiber-based network to homes, businesses and apartment buildings to parts of another 38 metros.

AT&T didn't detail the rollout timing, but said those additions will expand GigaPower’s footprint to 56 metros.

AT&T has expanded its live GigaPower footprint to portions of 20 metros with the addition of Los Angeles, Calif.; and West Palm Beach, Fla. AT&T has not revealed how many GigaPower subscribers have signed on, but Brad Bentley, AT&T Entertainment Group’s EVP and chief marketing officer, said in a statement that customer demand and sales of GigaPower “have exceeded expectations” since the initial launch in Austin, Texas, about two years ago. 

AT&T said its GigaPower network now passes 1 million “locations,” and that it expects to more than double that number by the end of 2016.

With the Los Angeles West Palm Beach rollouts factored in, here are the markets AT&T has identified for its latest GigaPower expansion wave:

-Alabama: Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery

-Arkansas: Fort Smith/Northwest Arkansas and Little Rock

-California: Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose

-Florida: Pensacola and West Palm Beach

-Georgia: Augusta

-Indiana: Indianapolis

-Kansas: Wichita

-Kentucky: Louisville

-Louisiana: Baton Rouge, Shreveport-Bossier, Jefferson Parish region and the Northshore

-Mississippi: Jackson

-Missouri: St. Louis

-Michigan: Detroit

-Nevada: Reno

-North Carolina: Asheville

-Ohio: Cleveland and Columbus

-Oklahoma: Oklahoma City and Tulsa

-South Carolina: Charleston, Columbia and Greenville

-Tennessee: Memphis

-Texas: El Paso and Lubbock

-Wisconsin: Milwaukee

AT&T has set up an online map that tracks deployments and availability of GigaPower.

AT&T noted that customers in the majority of its GigaPower markets looking to bundle pay TV service will have the option to choose between DirecTV or U-verse TV. 

Cox Communications’s residential 1-Gig march continued this week with the debut of the MSO’s “G1GABLAST” service in parts of Northern Virginia,  where the operator tangles with Verizon FiOS, a fiber-fed platform that currently tops out at 500 Mbps.

Cox billed the launch as the first gigabit service in the DC Metro area (Comcast has not yet made Gigabit Pro, its residential 2 Gbps FTTP offering, available in the Washington, D.C. area) .  Early on, Cox is offering 1-Gig residential broadband to residents at Timber Ridge at Discovery Square in Fairfax County.

Cox recently expanded G1GABLAST to parts of Providence, the service’s initial entry into the Rhode Island market, and has it deployed it to portions of Phoenix; Las Vegas; Omaha; San Diego; Orange County; Baton Rouge; Hampton Roads, Va.; Northwest Arkansas; Wichita; Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

In Northern Virginia, Cox is selling G1GABLAST for $99.99 per month when bundled with other Cox services.

Cox currently offers 1-Gig using fiber-to-the-premises technology, and has plans to deliver gigabit speeds using DOCSIS 3.1, cable’s next-gen IP platform for HFC networks as Cox fulfills its plan to begin market-wide deployment of 1-Gig broadband by the end of 2016.

 “We are excited to deliver the choice of gigabit speeds to our customers,” said Cox Communications president Pat Esser said in a statement. “Coupled with our 2,400 employees throughout Cox Virginia and more than 24,000 nationwide, our latest investments and the deployment of the fastest speeds available are powering economic growth and development for businesses and residents of the communities we serve.”

“Cox has invested $1.33 billion in our network in Virginia in the last ten years to meet the growing demands of our customers,” added Cox Virginia SVP and regional manager J.D. Myers II. “We are committed to keeping our residential and businesses customers in Northern Virginia connected to the things they care about most, today and in the years to come."     

AT&T said it has launched its fiber-based GigaPower platform to parts of several new areas in and around markets such as Atlanta, Chicago and Houston.

Here’s the latest batch of expansions and pricing on a market-by-market basis:

-Atlanta: Alpharetta, Cartersville, Duluth, East Point and Rome. Standalone 1-Gig for $70/month, 1-Gig+TV starting at $120/month, and 1-Gig, TV and voice starting at $150/month.

-Chicago: Bolingbrook, Mundelein, Shorewood and Volo. Standalone 1-Gig for $110/month; 1-Gig + TV starting at $150/month; and 1-Gig+TV+voice starting at $180/month.

-Clemmons, Holly Springs, Salisbury, and Garner, N.C. Standalone 1-Gig for $70/month, 1-Gig+TV starting at $120/month, and 1-Gig, TV and voice starting at $150/month.

-Nashville: Gallatin and Spring Hill. Standalone 1-Gig for $70/month, 1-Gig+TV starting at $120/month, and 1-Gig, TV and voice starting at $150/month.

-Houston: Hunters Creek Village and Rosenberg. Standalone 1-Gig for $110/month; 1-Gig + TV starting at $150/month; and 1-Gig+TV+voice starting at $180/month.

-Miami: Coral Gables, Homestead, Miami Gardens and Parkland. Standalone 1-Gig for $110/month; 1-Gig + TV starting at $150/month; and 1-Gig+TV+voice starting at $180/month.

-Orlando: Oviedo and Sanford. Standalone 1-Gig for $110/month; 1-Gig + TV starting at $150/month; and 1-Gig+TV+voice starting at $180/month.

AT&T also announced plans to offer service in parts of the St. Louis metro, in addition to the 18 metros where U-verse with GigaPower is already available.

In addition to the 18 metros where AT&T offers GigaPower, the telco also has plans to offer it in parts of the  St. Louis metro. AT&T recently launched an interactive map that tracks GigaPower’s progress.