Offering evidence that Comcast is nearing the debut of a 1-Gig service powered by DOCSIS 3.1 in Nashville, a prospective customer noted on the DSL Reports message boards that the MSO is starting to promote “X1 Gigabit” in that market.

Comcast has already identified Nashville as one of five markets tagged for D3.1 this year. Comcast booted up an “advanced consumer trial” in Atlanta in March, and has set plans to roll the new platform next in Nashville, followed by deployments in Chicago, Detroit and Miami in the second half of 2016. So far, six cable modem vendors have notched CableLabs certification for DOCSIS 3.1, a next-gen platfom that delivers multi-gigabit speeds on HFC networks. A D3.1-certified modem from Technicolor is involved in Comcast's Atlanta consumer trial. 

Like the Atlanta trial, Comcast appears to be promoting its new 1-Gig residential service delivered on D3.1 for $70 per month if customers agree to a three-year contract, or $139.95 without it.

Comcast has not announced a launch date for the D3.1 product in Nashville. 

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

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

Applying some speed pressure on AT&T and Comcast, Consolidated Communications has launched a 1 Gbps residential broadband service in the Houston area, a follow-up to its first 1-Gig launch in Kansas City in late 2014.

CCI said its fiber-fed symmetrical 1-Gig service is available to qualified homes for $69.95 per month, when customers agree to a two-year contract. However, CCI isn’t saddling the service with construction or installation fees.

“Our continued rollout of 1 gigabit service across our markets demonstrates our commitment to meeting our customers’ expectations today, tomorrow and into the future,” said Rob Koester, CCI’s VP of consumer product marketing. “We have the network, expertise and people based in the Houston-area to deliver the fastest, most reliable, high quality service.” 

CCI is launching service in the Houston area as speed competition heats up. AT&T launched its fiber-based “GigaPower” service to parts of Houston in April, offering it for $110 per month to customers who agree to participate in the AT&T Internet Preferences targeted ad program.

Comcast has also identified Houston as a market that will soon get Gigabit Pro, an uncapped, fiber-based, symmetrical 2 Gbps service that will be available to homes within close proximity (about 1/3 of a mile) of the MSO's fiber network. Comcast said it expects to launch Gigabit Pro in Houston sometime this summer, but has not yet announced pricing. 

It’s Gigabit Pro day. Soon after announcing that it had begun to roll out the new 2-Gig residential service to Nashville and middle Tennessee, Comcast said the new offering is also starting its push into the Midwest, starting with an anticipated debut in several markets in the greater Chicago region later this month.

The rollout in the Chicago area, which also factors in parts of Northwest Indiana and comes as this week’s INTX show is being hosted in The Windy City, will make Gigabit Pro available to about 2.4 million customers there, Comcast said.

AT&T launched its fiber-based GigaPower service in parts of Chicago last month. 

 Additionally, Comcast will make the service available through Xfinity Communities, a program for residents living in apartments and other multi-dwelling units.

Comcast is in the process of making Gigabit Pro 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 are also underway in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Atlanta; parts of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville; and certain areas of California.

Comcast has not announced pricing for Gigabit Pro, a service that relies on fiber-to-the-premises technology. Plans are also underway for Comcast to offer residential gigabit speeds on its HFC plant using the emerging DOCSIS 3.1 platform.

“Greater Chicago Region customers will be the first in the Midwest to have access to multi-gigabit speeds,” John Crowley, regional SVP of Comcast Cable’s Greater Chicago Region, said. “We’re thrilled to bring the nation’s fastest speeds here and hope the introduction of Gigabit Pro will help further establish the region as the next great hub of technology and innovation.”

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 said 1.3 million customers in Florida will soon have access to Gigabit Pro, a new symmetrical 2 Gbps broadband service that will be delivered on a targeted basis using fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology.

Comcast expects to make Gigabit Pro available to about 18 million homes by the end of the year, and announced earlier that it is rolling out the 2-Gig service in Atlanta and in parts of California.

The operator has not announced pricing for its uncapped Gigabit Pro service, but said it will be offered to residential Floridians in Miami, Jacksonville, West Palm and Fort Lauderdale starting next month. Access will also be extended to apartment buildings and other multiple-dwelling units via the MSO’s Xfinity Communities program for property owners, developers and leasing agents.

Comcast’s primary wireline competitor in those markets is AT&T, which has plans to deploy its fiber-based, 1-Gig-capable “GigaPower” platform in parts of Jacksonville and Miami.

Comcast will offer Gigabit Pro 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.

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.

Time Warner Cable said it has begun to notify customers in San Antonio of coming “TWC Maxx” upgrades that will clear the way for faster broadband speeds and the introduction of a new “enhanced” HD-DVR.

The upgrade will goose the speed offered by TWC’s high-speed Internet tiers at no additional cost – Standard will rise from 15 Mbps to 50 Mbps; Extreme will jump from 30 Mbps to 200 Mbps; and customers on TWC's Ultimate tier will go from 50 Mbps down to 300 Mbps.

On the competitive front, AT&T added San Antonio to the list of cities that will get GigaPower, the telco’s 1-Gig-capable fiber platform, last summer, but has not yet launched 1-Gig services there. Google Fiber is still considering expanding its 1-Gig platform to San Antonio, but did not include the city on its recently announced list of expansion markets.

TWC said the first phase of the project, which includes the reclamation of analog spectrum, will bring the faster speeds to about 750,000 subs in the first phase of the rollout through the end of March, with completion in San Antonio expected by the end of July.

Areas that are part of the first phase of the TWC Maxx upgrade include Balcones Heights, China Grove, Far North East side,  Kirby, Pecan Valley, Shavano Park, Somerset, and Windcrest, among others.

In addition to San Antonio, TWC Maxx upgrades are underway or complete in Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and New York. Other TWC markets on tap this year include San Diego, Hawaii, Charlotte and Raleigh.

TWC has also begun to deploy WiFi hotspots in small business locations that will be accessible by the MSO’s broadband subs as well as to cable modem customers that get service from other members of the Cable WiFi roaming alliance – Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Cox Communications and Bright House Network. TWC plans to bring WiFi to outdoor locations toward the end of the first quarter.

Time Warner Cable has completed an upgrade in the speed-crazy town of Austin, Texas, that is highlighted by a new 300 Mbps (downstream) DOCSIS 3.0 service that replaces its former 50 Mbps offering, Ryan Kelly, TWC’s integrated communications manager, noted Tuesday in this blog post.

TWC announced in May that more than 100,000 subscribers in Austin, or about 40% of its customers in the area, had access a new batch of broadband speed increases, including the top-end 300-Meg tier that is paired with an upstream that maxes out at 20 Mbps.

Among the “TWC Maxx” upgrades, which include an all-digital migration, an expanded VOD library, and the introduction of a new six-tuner HD-DVR, the operator’s Standard plan jumps from 15 Mbps down to 50 Mbps for no extra charge. Some customers will need a DOCSIS 3.0 modem to get the speed upgrades. Customers who lease modems from the MSO and need a new one to get the faster speeds can get one for no additional charge. TWC has set up a Web page dedicated to its modem swap program.

TWC is upgrading its plant in Austin as AT&T continues a limited rollout of its 1-Gig-capable, fiber-fed “U-verse With GigaPower” service, and Grande Communications expands the reach of a 1-Gig service that sells for $64.99 per month. Google Fiber is also in the process of building out a network in parts of Austin that will support 1-Gig speeds and a pay-TV service.

The FCC has been pressuring ISPs to deliver faster speeds and then deliver on the speeds it promises. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has signaled that speed is a factor in determining whether broadband is being deployed in a timely manner.

TWC, which is in the process of being acquired by Comcast, has TWC Maxx upgrades underway in New York City and Los Angeles. TWC announced recently that  seven more markets are in line to get the TWC Maxx treatment in 2015: Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Hawaii; Kansas City, Mo.;  Raleigh, N.C.; San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego.

Kelly added in the blog post that upgrades in New York and L.A. are more than halfway done, and the MSO is on track to reach a goal of completing network upgrades that reach more than 3 million customers by the end of 2014.

Notably, a video embedded with Kelly’s blog post that explores upgrade activity at a hub in Queens, N.Y., shows a cable modem termination system from Casa Systems, a vendor that has been gaining ground on CMTS market leaders Arris and Cisco Systems.

AT&T said Tuesday that it will expand its 1-Gig-capable “GigaPower” network to parts of Overland Park, Kan., a commitment that comes about a month after the Kansas City suburb approved agreements that give Google Fiber the go ahead to build its network there as well.

“Overland Park is proud to be the first city in Kansas and the metropolitan Kansas City area to have the AT&T GigaPower network,” said Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach, in a statement. “The memorandum of understanding between AT&T and the city demonstrates our commitment to allow for fair and equitable competition that benefits consumers.”

AT&T said specific locations of availability and pricing for Overland Park market will be announced at a later date. The telco said it’s also considering other nearby cities and towns in Kansas and Missouri, including Independence, Kansas City, Leawood, and Shawnee as candidate municipalities for the GigaPower service.

Time Warner Cable and Comcast are among the incumbent cable operators that are serving those areas. Google Fiber is already building or has approval to build in most of them.

Expand its U-verse footprint to more areas of Kansas. AT&T already offers U-verse service in Hutchinson, Kansas City, Lawrence, Manhattan, Topeka, and Wichita, and said it plans to expand that footprint to include more areas of Kansas.

AT&T’s plans for Overland Park follow other recent commitments and current rollouts for its new fiber-based platform.

AT&T has launched GigaPower services in parts of Austin, Texas, and expects to start deployments in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area this summer.

Other areas where AT&T has approvals to deploy GigaPower include Charlotte, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Cary, Winston-Salem and Durham, N.C.; San Antonio, Texas; and Nashville, Tenn. AT&T is also  exploring an expansion of GigaPower to as many as 100 additional cities across 25 markets. AT&T has proposed to expand GigaPower to an additional 2 million customers as a condition of its pending acquisition of DirecTV.