Comcast confirmed that Gigabit Pro, its new symmetrical 2 Gbps residential broadband service delivered via fiber-to-the-premises technology, will carry a promotional price of $159 per month in the early going, about half its general price of $299.95 per month.

A web site promoting the service went live Monday. According to the fine print, customers who are eligible (those within one-third of a mile of Comcast’s fiber network) must agree to a two-year term contract that is subject to early termination fees, as well as other fees, including $500 for a professional installation and $500 for service activation. “Installation may require 6 to 8 weeks or more to complete,” the site explains.

Updates:

-Gigabit Pro will not be subject to monthly usage consumption caps. Comcast is testing usage-based consumption policies in several markets for HFC-delivered high-speed Internet services. 

-Comcast confirmed a report that the promotional pricing for Gigabit Pro is presently limited to the MSO's Central Division markets, and that customers who take the promotional rate will be required to sign a three-year agreement. Comcast hasn't announced the duration of this promo. "We want to test it first and see what we learn from it," a spokesman said. 

In the early going, Comcast is offering Gigabit Pro as a stand-alone service, and is not offering it in conjunction with specific video and voice bundles.

According to the Gigabit Pro site, the new 2-Gig service is available in the following areas:

-Florida: Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, and West Palm Beach.

-Georgia: Atlanta.

-Illinois: Chicago.

-Indiana: Anderson, Bloomington, Columbus, Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Gary, Hammond, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Lafayette,  and South Bend.

-Michigan: Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, and Lansing.

-Tennessee: Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville.

-California: Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton and Visalia metro areas.

Comcast, which announced Gigabit Pro in April, plans to make the 2-Gig service available to 18 million customers by the end of 2015. Other markets identified for the service include Houston; Colorado (including metro Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs); Utah; Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); Oregon;  and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.

Comcast has been using its business-focused Metro Ethernet platform to deliver a residential service called Extreme 505 (those customers will be moved to Gigabit Pro), but is expected to use a PON-based approach for Gigabit Pro in the months ahead.

Comcast is deploying Gigabit Pro on a demand-driven basis, only pulling fiber and installing the necessary home-side gear to customers who sign up for it. Comcast expects to offer gigabit speeds on a much broader basis on its broadly deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1, a new CableLabs-specified platform that is targeting capacities up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.

More detail about Comcast’s strategy around Gigabit Pro and cable’s targeted use of fiber-to-the-premises technologies will be featured in the July 20 issue of Multichannel News. 

Comcast has not announced pricing for its “Gigabit Pro” service, but the MSO continues to expand the number of markets that will gain access to it.

Comcast said the service, which will deliver symmetrical speeds of 2 Gbps over fiber to residential customers, will soon be available to about 650,000 homes in parts of Indiana (Indianapolis, Anderson, Bloomington, Fort Wayne, Columbus, Kokomo and Lafayette), and to roughly 1.5 million homes in several cities in Michigan, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Jackson and Lansing.

Comcast has also announced it will offer Gigabit Pro in Atlanta; parts of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville; Houston; Colorado (including metro Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs); Utah; Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); Oregon; Chicago and northwest Indiana; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., and parts of California.

The MSO’s plan is to make Gigabit Pro available to 18 million customers (homes that are within about one-third of its fiber network) by the end of 2015.

Pricing on the service is expected to emerge when Comcast begins to market Gigabit Pro sometime this month. A Web page promoting the service, originally spotted by DSL Reports, temporarily indicated that the service would start at $299 per month, but Comcast said pricing, including introductory and promotional rates for Gigabit Pro, were still being considered.

Comcast also plans to offer gigabit speeds via its its more broadly deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1. 

If you’re a consumer in a Comcast market that’s been waiting for Gigabit Pro, the MSO’s new fiber-based 2-Gig service, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.

“We expect to start marketing Gigabit Pro this month,” a Comcast spokesman said via email. “The plan is to make it available in multiple markets simultaneously.”

While Comcast has been talking up summer launches of Gigabit Pro in several markets, the original plan in some of the first announced areas tagged for the coming 2-Gig service, notably in Atlanta and parts of Florida, anticipated that the service to become available to qualified homes by sometime in May. 

DSL Reports made mention of this today, reporting that a Comcast rep told a potential Gigabit Pro customer in Florida that the launch there has been “temporarily delayed.” DSL Reports also got hold of some marketing material Comcast has been sending out ahead of the launch in Atlanta that included this teaser page for the new service. 

In addition to Atlanta and part of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville, Comcast has already announced that the following markets are also in line to get Gigabit Pro: Houston; Colorado (including metro Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs); Utah; Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); Oregon; Chicago and northwest Indiana; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., and parts of California.

Comcast’s current plan is to make Gigabit Pro available to 18 million homes (those within about one-third of a mile of its fiber network) by the end of 2015.

How many of them will actually want or need a residential 2-gig service is up for debate. As for the want, that will be partly determined by how Comcast prices it. That hasn’t been formally announced, either, though a promotional Web site that appeared temporarily indicated that the service would start at $299 per month. Comcast said then that pricing, including introductory and promotional rates for Gigabit Pro, were still being considered. 

Comcast said it has begun to rollout “Gigabit Pro,” its fiber-fed symmetrical 2 Gbps residential broadband service in Houston and Denver, while also introducing a new DOCSIS 3.0-based 250 Mbps service that’s delivered on the MSO’s hybrid fiber/coax plant.

In Houston, Comcast said it will launch Gigabit Pro this summer and make it available to 1.5 million homes. The new D3.0 service, Extreme 250, is available now.

Notably, AT&T launched its 1-Gig residential service, “GigaPower,” to parts of Houston in April, starting at $110 per month.

In Colorado, Comcast said it will offer Gigabit Pro to nearly 1 million homes in the metro Denver area and Colorado Springs this summer, along with widespread availability of the new 250-Meg service. Comcast’s primary wireline competitor there is CenturyLink, which has already launched a 1-Gig service in the Denver area. That summer deployment will also reach into Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont, according toThe Denver Post.

Update: Comcast also announced it has begun to deploy Gigabit Pro in Utah (Google Fiber is operating in Provo); Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); to 650,000 customers in Oregon and southwest Washington; to more than 600,000 homes in Minneapolis/St. Paul; and, starting in June, to about 190,000 customers in Knoxville, Tenn., and its surrounding communities. 

Comcast plans to make Gigabit Pro available to 18 million homes by the end of the year. The service, which relies on targeted fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) deployments, will be available to residential customers who are within “close proximity” (about a third of a mile) of the MSO’s fiber network. Deployments are also underway in Chicago and northwest Indiana; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Atlanta; parts of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville; and certain areas of California

Comcast has not announced pricing for Gigabit Pro, though a promotional Web site that appeared temporarily indicated that the service would start at $299 per month. At the time, Comcast said the site was put up in error and that pricing, including introductory and promotional rates for Gigabit Pro, were still being considered.

The MSO will also deliver gigabit residential speeds using DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging next-gen IP platform for HFC that Comcast is currently testing ahead of deployments expected to begin in early 2016.

Comcast offered a preview of a D3.1-based  “Gigabit Home Gateway” at the INTX show in Chicago,  noting that the device will enter production this year and become available to customers in early 2016. 

A microsite promoting Comcast’s new 2 Gbps residential broadband service, Gigabit Pro, showed, albeit temporarily, a starting price of $299 per month.

The marketing site touting Gigabit Pro, at www.comcast.com/gig_campaign, was taken down early Monday evening, however. 

“The web page was put up in error,” a Comcast spokesman said in an emailed statement. “We don't have an official price to announce at this time. Pricing, including introductory and promotional rates, are still being considered.”

DSL Reports was the first to report of the microsite and pricing detail, and one of its users posted a screengrab showing the $299 per month pricing alongside a phone number for consumers to call to receive more information on Gigabit Pro. 

Comcast introduced Gigabit Pro on April 2, announcing that the fiber-to-the-premises-based offering would initially be available to more than 1.5 million customers in Atlanta, and become available to 18 million homes by the end of 2015. Comcast has also identified several other markets that will soon offer Gigabit Pro, including Chicago; northwest Indiana; Nashville, Chattanooga and middle Tennessee; parts of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville; and certain areas of California.

Comcast will offer the uncapped Gigabit Pro service to residential customers who are within “close proximity” (roughly a one-third of a mile) of the MSO’s fiber network.

While Comcast has not announced official pricing on Gigabit Pro, the company said last month that it intends to convert its existing Extreme 505 customers to the new 2 Gig service, and expects to sell Gigabit Pro at a price that’s below the rate those customers have been paying for the 505-Meg (downstream) service, which also uses FTTP and currently sells for $399.99 per month (with a three-year contract). 

Comcast is also moving ahead with plans to offer gigabit speeds via its widely deployed HFC network using the emerging DOCSIS 3.1 platform. Comcast offered a preview of a D3.1-based  “Gigabit Home Gateway” at last week’s INTX show in Chicago,  noting that the device will enter production this year and become available to customers in early 2016. 

Comcast said it has begun to deploy Gigabit Pro, its new residential 2 Gbps broadband service, in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, announcing that it will be available to about 500,000 customers in the region starting next month.

Comcast has not announced pricing on the service, which will use targeted fiber-to-the-premises deployments to deliver symmetrical 2-Gig speeds.

Notably, Nashville is also being targeted by Google Fiber as part of an 18-city expansion. AT&T has also identified Nashville as a launch site for GigaPower, its fiber-based 1-Gig broadband service.

Comcast has not yet announced pricing on Gigabit Pro, a service that it expects to make available to about 18 million homes by the end of the year, offering it to customers who are within about one-third of a mile of the MSO’s fiber network. Deployments of Gigabit Pro is already underway in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Atlanta, parts of Florida (Miami, Jacksonville, West Palm and Ft. Lauderdale), and certain areas of California.

Comcast is also making plans to offer gigabit speeds on its more widely deployed HFC plant using DOCSIS 3.1, a new CableLabs spec that is targeting speeds up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps upstream. On Tuesday, Comcast offered a sneak peak of an multi-service “Gigabit Home Gateway” that will support DOCSIS 3.1 and RDK-B, a new flavor of the Reference Design Kit, a preintegrated software stack, that can be applied to broadband devices as well as set-top boxes. 

“Our commitment to deliver the fastest speeds to the most homes in Tennessee continues with today’s announcement,” said Doug Guthrie, SVP of Comcast Cable’s South Region, in a statement. “As one of Nashville’s largest employers, we have steadily invested in our technology, added to our employee base and unveiled new products and services, making the launch of Gigabit Pro the latest in a series of investments across the state.” 

Comcast confirmed that it will launch Gigabit Pro, its new fiber-based 2 Gbps residential broadband service, in Chattanooga, Tenn., where the MSO grapples with EPB Fiber Optics, which sells a 1-Gig service.

Comcast intends to make Gigabit Pro available in Chattanooga starting in June, according to the Times Free Press.Update: The MSO announced it will offer the service for up to 200,000 customers in Chattanooga in June and plans to "expand availability locally over the next several months."

Comcast has already announced it will offer Gigabit Pro in Atlanta, Florida (Miami, Jacksonville, West Palm and Ft. Lauderdale), and to parts of California, including Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton and Visalia.

Comcast will offer the uncapped Gigabit Pro service to residential customers who are within “close proximity” (about one-third of a mile) of Comcast’s fiber network, which consists of more than 145,000 route miles. Using this approach, Comcast expects to make Gigabit Pro available to about 18 million homes by the end of the year.

Gigabit Pro uses fiber-to-the-premises technology, but Comcast also plans to offer gigabit speeds to residential customers on its HFC network using the emerging DOCSIS 3.1 platform.

Comcast has not announced pricing for Gigabit Pro. In Chattanooga, EPB Fiber Optics is currently selling 1-Gig service for $69.99 per month. In 2008, Comcast tried so sue EPB and block the municipal's fiber buildout, but a court dismissed the suit later that year. 

Comcast said it will roll out Gigabit Pro, its new residential, fiber-based 2 Gbps service, in California in June, and also introduced a new DOCSIS 3.0-based tier, called Extreme 250, that will pump out downstream speeds of up to 250 Mbps and be delivered via the HFC network.

Also in California, Comcast said it is raising the downstream speeds of the following tiers at no additional cost:

-Performance: From 50 Mbps to 75 Mbps

-Blast: From 105 Mbps to 150 Mbps

Those speed bumps will go into effect starting in May and continue throughout the year, the MSO said.

California is the second area identified by Comcast for Gigabit Pro. The operator will launch that symmetrical 2-Gig service in Atlanta sometime next month.

Gigabit Pro, which Comcast expects to make available to 18 million homes this year, will be deployed on a targeted basis using fiber-to-the-premises technology (fiber and the other requisite premises-facing gear will only be deployed to homes that decide to subscribe to the service). On that note, Comcast has said it will make the symmetrical 2 Gbps service available to residential customers who are within “close proximity” (about one-third of a mile) of Comcast’s fiber network.

In California, Comcast will offer Gigabit Pro in Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton and Visalia metro areas. Comcast has been offering up to 10-Gig fiber-based Ethernet service to businesses in the state since 2011.

Comcast, which is in the process of acquiring Time Warner Cable, also intends to offer residential gigabit speeds on its more widely deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1.

Comcast has not announced pricing on Gigabit Pro. It was not immediately known how the new 250 Mbps D3 service will be priced.

“This is Comcast’s 15th speed increase in 13 years. We are proud to boost our existing speeds and most importantly introduce new Internet tiers like the Extreme 250 and Gigabit Pro that will allow our California customers to do more online, across multiple devices,” said Hank Fore, regional SVP of Comcast Cable’s California Region, in a statement. “We will continue to look for opportunities to increase speeds to not only stay ahead of customer demands, but also to provide a wide range of options that meet customer needs.”

The MSO noted that the new speeds announced today for California won’t launch in the following areas: Arbuckle, Coalinga, Cool, Gustine, Huron, Isleton, Le Grand, Lodi, Maxwell, Planada, Rio Vista, Santa Cruz, Santa Nella, Scotts Valley and Williams.