As it plunges billions of dollars into its main hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network to upgrade it to a 10 gigabit-per-second transom, Comcast has already welcomed the elite cadre of well-heeled customers who can afford its $300-a-month Gigabit Pro fiber-to-the-home service into the 10G future. 

In a company blog post published Tuesday, Elad Nafshi, Comcast executive VP and chief network officer, announced that the Gigabit Pro service has been upgraded from 10 Gbps downstream and 6 Gbps upstream to a symmetrical 10-Gbps offering. 

It's unclear as to how many of Comcast's 32.3 million broadband customers have access to the fiber-to-the-home tier — you need to live within 1,760 feet from a fiber node to be able to subscribe to it. Also unclear is how many customers have actually signed up for the offering. 

It’s prohibitively expensive. Beyond the $300 monthly bill, installation, activation and equipment rental fees total over $1,000. 

But if you need a reliable, low-latency symmetrical 10-Gbps connection today, it might be available. 

“Our network is architected to give us options to deliver a great experience over both HFC and fiber-to-the-home technologies,” Nafshi wrote. “For our customers who are on the bleeding edge of tech adoption, we recently increased the speeds of our symmetrical FTTH service, Gigabit Pro, to 10Gbps/10Gbps, and that is available in all the markets we serve.”

Comcast is preparing to launch 1-Gig (downstream) broadband service using DOCSIS 3.1 in several new markets in early 2017, according to a mix of local reports, a formal announcement and an updated gigabit deployment map.  

Comcast has consumer trials underway in Nashville, Chicago and Atlanta, and has already announced that Detroit and Miami will be soon added to that list.

Update: Comcast announced today that it has launched 1-Gig service via D3.1 in Detroit, with a base price of $139.95 per month while also testing “promotional base pricing” of $70 per month with a three-year service contract. Comcast also said it still plans to launch D3.1 in Miami before the end of tye year.

RELATED: Comcast Goes For a Gig in Chicago

Notably, Comcast’s coming D3.1 expansion arrives amid a confirmation from Google Fiber that it will halt its expansion into new cities as it continues buildouts in existing 1-Gig markets and takes a closer look at potentially less expensive wireless broadband alternatives.

RELATED: Google Fiber Pauses Expansion Plans, Laying Off Some Staff

Here’s a rundown of the additional areas and markets the MSO is targeting for deployment early next year, according to MSO announcements and local media reports:

-Colorado, according to The Denver Post, noting that the rollout should start in January or February. Comcast’s primary competitor there is CenturyLink, which is offering 1-Gig in select areas.  

-Suburban Kansas City, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

-Oregon and Southwest Washington, per The Oregonian, which notes that the new service might qualify the MSO for a "gigabit" tax break that state lawmakers seemingly tailored for Google Fiber, which had been exploring deployment there. That deployment includes Seattle, according to The Seattle Times.

-Knoxville, Tenn., according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

-Select cities in Comcast’s California footprint, including the San Francisco Bay Area, per this press release. Comcast noted that the following areas not part of the initial deployment that’s slated for early 2017: Sacramento, Rio Vista, Isleton, Lodi, Ukiah, Willits, Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Williams, Arbuckle, Maxwell, Citrus Heights, Folsom, McClellan AFB, Rancho Cordova, Cool, Sutter Creek, Amador City-San Andreas, Angels Camp, Arnold, Jackson, Plymouth, Lathrop, Manteca, Sonora and Tuolumne County-Sonora.

Comcast, which has been expanding the deployment of a new 1-terabyte data plan, has also updated a map showing current and planned gigabit deployments. Markets tagged as new “upcoming” deployments of 1-Gig service include Denver; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City; Knoxville, Tenn.; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco Bay Area and San Jose, Calif.; Salt Lake City; and Seattle.

RELATED: Comcast Launches DOCSIS 3.1 Trial in Nashville

Comcast is looking to ramp up deployment of DOCSIS 3.1, a CableLabs-specified platform for widely deployed HFC networks that is capable of delivering multi-gigabit speeds.  On a more targeted basis, Comcast has also been selling Gigabit Pro, a symmetrical (and pricier) 2 Gbps residential broadband service that uses fiber-to-the-premises technologies.  

RELATED: DOCSIS 3.1 In The Wild

Comcast didn’t announce pricing for D3.1-powered 1-Gig (downstream) services coming to the new markets early next year, but the MSO’s web site is showing an advertised price of $139.95 per month. However, in test markets such as Chicago, Atlanta and Nashville, Comcast has also been promoting a $70 per month option for customers who agree to a three-year contract, and a contract-free price of $139.95 per month.

Among competitors, RCN is deploying 1-Gig over DOCSIS 3.1 in Chicago and New York City for $69.99 per month for the first 12 months.WideOpenWest is using D3.1 to power an uncapped 1-Gig service in a handful of markets for $70 per month, with a two-year contract. 

Speaking at the recent SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia, Comcast VP of access architecture Jorge Salinger said initial trial deployments of D3.1 showed that the technology was working as advertised.

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. 

Comcast confirmed that the MSO has expanded the availability of Gigabit Pro, its FTTP-based symmetrical 2 Gbps residential broadband service, to the Northeast Division, which serves about 8 million customers across more than a dozen states, including Maine, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

A user on the DSL Reports message board posted a revised Gigabit Pro coverage map illustrating the expansion.

Comcast’s current (older) Gigabit Pro availability map identifies other towns and cities that have access in parts of California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Washington, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, and Oregon.

Comcast started to sell Gigabit Pro in July for a promotional price of $159 per month; the general price for the up-capped service is $299.95 per month. It’s subject to a two-year agreement and fees of up to $500 for installation and $500 for activation.

Comcast introduced Gigabit Pro in April, announcing then that it would make it available to 18 million customers by the end of 2015. To get it, customers must be within a third of a mile of the MSO’s fiber network.

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. The operator is also looking to offer gigabit speeds on broader basis on its HFC network using the emerging DOCSIS 3.1 platform. 

It's been a big week for gigabit expansions. AT&T announced yesterday it was expanding GigaPower to parts of 38 metros, while Google Fiber revealed plans today to explore buildouts in two major U.S. cities -- Chicago and Los Angeles. 

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.

AT&T on Monday (November 2) launched its fiber-based GigaPower service in Jacksonville, Fla., a debut that comes  more than a year after the telco announced plans to launch the 1-Gig offering in that market.

AT&T said it is also offering GigaPower in multi-family properties and apartments in the Jacksonville are, including Frassati Hall, Galleria at Cabana Club Plummer’s Creek, and Spyglass, and that it intends to make GigaPower available in parts of St. Augustine in the first half of 2016.

In Jacksonville, AT&T is offering standalone 1-Gig service starting at $110 per month, or 300 Mbps starting at $80 per month, with a one-year price guarantee.  1-Gig/TV bundles start at $120 per month, and triple-play bundles with 1-Gig start at $180 per month.

AT&T, which recently merged with DirecTV,  will look to amp up the broadband competition in Jacksonville with incumbent cable operator Comcast, which recently introduced Gigabit Pro, a symmetrical 2 Gbps FTTP offering that’s available to eligible customers who are within one-third of a mile of Comcast’s fiber network.  Comcast is selling Gigabit Pro in Jacksonville for $299.95 per month, with a two-year agreement.

Google Fiber, which has been selling standalone 1-Gig service for $70 per month in select areas, announced last month that it is exploring expansions in Jacksonville, as well as Tampa and Oklahoma City, Okla.

AT&T said GigaPower is now available in 18 metros, and recently expanded availability to parts of Georgia, North Carolina, Kansas City, Florida and Chicago. The telco, which claims to have invested nearly $2.8 billion in its Florida wireless and wireline networks between 2012 and 2014, also has plans to offer GigaPower in parts of St. Louis.  

AT&T recently introducedaninteractive map that tracks GigaPower rollouts.

Google Fiber said it is exploring an expansion into three markets – Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

“Now we start our joint planning process, when we work side-by-side with local leaders to create detailed studies of each metro area,”  Jill Szuchmacher, director, Google Fiber Expansion, said in this blog post. “Constructing a brand-new fiber network is a big job—the more we learn about a city, the smoother our construction efforts will be. We’ll study factors that may impact construction, like local infrastructure and housing density.”

Google Fiber, she added, will decide whether to move ahead after it wraps up the vetting process in those areas.

If Google Fiber does push forward, it will compete in Oklahoma City with Cox Communications and AT&T; in Jacksonville with Comcast (Jacksonville is a site for the MSO's 2-Gig Gigabit Pro FTTP service) and AT&T, where the telco has deployed GigaPower; and in Tampa with Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS (Verizon is selling that FiOS property to Frontier Communications).

Those explorations follow similar explorations Google Fiber has underway in Irvine and San Diego and San Jose, Calif.; Portland; and Louisville, Ky., setting up potential additional competition for Cox, AT&T and Time Warner Cable, depending on the market.

Google Fiber has also  committed to launch service in San Antonio, Texas, building on deployments in Kansas City; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas, and buildouts underway in Salt Lake City; Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta; Charlotte; and Raleigh-Durham.

Google Fiber has not released subscriber counts for its gigabit broadband and pay TV services, but Bernstein Research estimated 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.

“We have increased conviction that Google’s main motivation to deploy Google Fiber is its belief that it has a better-than-good chance to build a profitable local-access competitor,” Carlos Kirjner, a senior analyst with the firm, noted in that study, which included fresh data from recent door-to-door surveys in some Google Fiber markets.

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. 

Google Fiber acknowledges that it’s continuing to have discussions with city officials in Portland, Ore., about bringing its mix of 1-Gig and pay TV services there, but isn’t confirming if or when it might pull the trigger on an actual deployment.

A report in The Oregonian (hat tip: DSL Reports), citing an official with a tech organization in Charlotte, N.C., (a city that is getting Google Fiber), indicates that a decision to bring Google Fiber to Portland has been made.  Alan Fitzpatrick, a co-founder of Charlotte Hearts Gigabit, told the pub that Google managers told his group that “Portland is going to be the next city…I almost thought one of them told me something they weren't supposed to."

That would indeed be a surprise (especially to the area’s incumbent providers, which include Comcast, Frontier Communications and CenturyLink), as Portland is still listed as a “potential” Google Fiber city (along with including Beaverton, Hillsboro,  Gresham, Lake Oswego, and Tigard ) that was not among the 18-city expansion announced in January.

Google Fiber responded to the speculation with this statement: “It’s great to see people excited about what’s next for Fiber, but we don’t have any announcements for now. We continue to work with cities to explore bringing Google Fiber to the Portland area.”

The Oregonian, meanwhile, points to other evidence suggesting that consumers in Portland should at least keep their hopes up, noting that Google has already nabbed a franchise agreement with the city and has posted Portland-area job openings.

Comcast, meanwhile, has already identified Portland as a deployment spot for Gigabit Pro, a symmetrical 2 Gbps residential service that will be deployed on a targeted basis using FTTP.

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. 

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. 

AT&T has launched its fiber-based “GigaPower” service in portions of Nashville, Tenn., where the telco currently competes with Comcast, and an area that is also being targeted with gigabit speeds by Google Fiber.

AT&T said its 1-Gig service is available in parts of Clarksville, Lebanon, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Smyrna and other surrounding communities in the Nashville metro area.

In Nashville, AT&T’s stand-alone 1-Gig service starts at $120 per month, while a 100 Mbps offering begins at $90 per month, with a one-year price guarantee, if customers agree to participate in AT&T Internet Preferences, the telco’s targeted Web advertising program. AT&T’s 1-Gig/U-verse TV bundles start at $150 per month, while its triple-play package (1-Gig, plus U-verse TV and U-verse Voice) starts at $180 per month. AT&T is selling GigaPower services for less in Kansas City, where Google Fiber has already launched 1-Gig broadband and pay TV services, including an uncapped, stand-alone 1 Gbps offering that runs $70 per month. 

AT&T has been applying a monthly data consumption policy to GigaPower that caps usage at 1-terabyte before charging $10 for each additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes, with a maximum monthly overage charge of $30.

AT&T has also launched GigaPower in parts of Chicago; Atlanta; Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; Cupertino, Calif.; Kansas City; and Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C.   AT&T has announced plans to deploy GigaPower in several other markets, including Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C.; Jacksonville and Miami, Fla.; St. Louis; and San Antonio. The telco has also pledged to expand its fiber-based platform to an additional 2 million customer locations as part of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV.

AT&T is deploying GigaPower in Nashville as competition continues to heat up in the market. Earlier this month, Comcast announced that it would soon begin to offer Gigabit Pro, its new residential 2 Gbps broadband service, in Nashville and middle Tennessee. Nashville is also being targeted by Google Fiber as part of an 18-city expansion.

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. 

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 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 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.

AT&T has launched its fiber-based, 1-Gig-capable “GigaPower” service in parts of Chicago, where the telco competes with Comcast and RCN Corp.

AT&T said it will initially offer GigaPower in parts of Elgin, Oswego, Plainfield, Skokie, Yorkville and “surrounding communities located throughout the metro area.” AT&T estimates that it has invested more than $3 billion on its wireless and wired networks in Illinois between 2012 through 2014.

Comcast has identified Atlanta and California as markets that will get its new FTTP-powered “Gigabit Pro,” which will deliver symmetrical 2 Gbps speeds on a targeted basis to residential customers. Comcast plans to make Gigabit Pro available to as many as 18 million homes this year, but has not yet said when it will offered in the Chicago market. Comcast also plans to offer gigabit speeds on its more broadly deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1.

In Chicago, AT&T is selling stand-alone 1-Gig starting at $120 per month, or 100 Mbps starting at $90 per month, under a “Premier” tier that requires customers to participate in the telco’s Internet Preferences targeted Web advertising initiative. The 1-Gig/TV bundle starts at $150 per month, while a triple-play version starts at $180 per month. AT&T has also been applying a monthly data consumption policy to GigaPower that caps usage at 1-terabyte before charging $10 for each additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes, with a maximum monthly overage charge of $30.

AT&T is selling GigaPower services for less in Kansas City, where Google Fiber has already launched 1-Gig broadband and pay TV services, including an uncapped, stand-alone 1 Gbps offering that runs $70 per month. 

AT&T has also launched GigaPower in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; Cupertino, Calif.; Kansas City; and Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C.   AT&T has announced plans to deploy GigaPower in parts of several other markets, including Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C.; Chicago; Jacksonville and Miami, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis; and San Antonio. 

The telco has also pledged to expand its fiber-based platform to an additional 2 million customer locations as part of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV.

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.

AT&T has launched its fiber-based 1-Gig-capable GigaPower service to parts of Atlanta, taking aim at a market that is also being targeted by Google Fiber, and a city that will serve as the launch point of Comcast's new 2-Gbps FTTP offering.

AT&T said it will offer GigaPower, along with a new WiFi residential gateway, to qualified parts of Atlanta, Decatur, Newnan and Sandy Springs.

In Atlanta, AT&T is selling a 1-Gbps stand-alone service will start at $120 per month, while a 100-Mbps service will begin at $90 per month, for customers who agree to participate in Internet Preferences, AT&T's targeted advertising program for the Web. AT&T’s 1-Gig/TV bundle starts at $150 per month, and a triple-play service begins at $180 per month.  AT&T is pitching services at lower prices in Kansas City, where Google Fiber has already launched 1-Gig and pay-TV services.

Google Fiber selected Atlanta as one of four metro areas tagged for expansion, but has not announced when services will launch there.

Comcast, meanwhile, announced recently that, starting next month, Atlanta will be the first market to get Gigabit Pro, an uncapped, 2 Gbps service offered via fiber-to-the-premises technology. Comcast has not priced the service, but expects to make it available to about 1.5 million customers in Atlanta, and expand availability to 18 million more homes as it offers Gigabit Pro to additional markets throughout 2015. Comcast said it will also use DOCSIS 3.1 on its hybrid fiber/coax network to increase the reach of gigabit broadband.

AT&T said  it has invested about $2.8 billion in its wireless and wired networks in Atlanta between 2012 and 2014. The company has also launched GigaPower service in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; Cupertino, Calif.; Kansas City; and Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C.

AT&T has announced plans to deploy GigaPower in parts of several other markets, including Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C.; Chicago; Jacksonville and Miami, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis; and San Antonio.  The telco has also pledged to expand its fiber-based platform to an additional 2 million customer locations as part of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV.

Roughly eight months after making the commitment, AT&T said it has followed with the launch of its 1-Gig-capable GigaPower service in Houston, where the telco competes with Comcast.

The U-verse with GigaPower offering for residential and small businesses is launching in pockets of Houston and surrounding areas that include Bellaire, Pasadena, and Northwest Harris County, the telco said.

For those who qualify, GigaPower in Houston will start at $110 per month for 1 Gbps, or $80 for 300 Mbps, for customers who agree to participate in in AT&T Internet Preferences targeted ad program.

Comcast last week introduced Gigabit Pro, an uncapped, fiber-based, symmetrical 2 Gbps service that will initially be offered in Atlanta, and expects to make it available to other systems passing 18 million homes by the end of 2015. Comcast has not announced when it will offer Gigabit Pro in Houston.

The launch in Houston follows a recent debut of GigaPower in Cupertino and in parts of Kansas City,  where AT&T is offering a stand-alone version of the 1-Gig service for $70 per month, a price that matches up with Google Fiber’s standalone gigabit plan there.

AT&T has also launched GigaPower  in Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth, Texas; and Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C. AT&T has announced plans to deploy GigaPower in parts of 11 additional markets – Atlanta; Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C.; Chicago; Houston; Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis and San Antonio.

AT&T has said it’s weighing GigaPower rollouts in up to 100 cities across 25 markets, and has also pledged to expand its fiber-based platform to an additional 2 million customer locations as part of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV.