Mediacom Communications is joining the residential gigabit club with a new 1-Gig service that will initially be offered to all homes passed in several areas of Missouri, including Jefferson City and Holts Summit and the counties of Boone, Cole, and Callaway.

The 1 Gbps (downstream) offering, which will be paired with an upstream that maxes out at 50 Mbps, will become available to customers in those markets on September 15. The new tier will initially retail for $149.99 per month, though Mediacom plans to offer it with bundled discounts if combined with other MSO services, according to company spokesman Thomas Larsen.

The monthly data allowance for the new 1-Gig service is 6 terabytes. Customers who exceed that threshold can buy additional data buckets of 50 Gigabytes for $10 each. Mediacom unified its usage-based Internet policy back in September 2013.

Mediacom also confirmed that it will be using DOCSIS 3.0 to deliver the new 1-Gig service, an approach that Suddenlink Communications is also utilizing for its new residential gigabit service. Top-end DOCSIS 3.0 modem chips from suppliers such as Intel and Broadcom can bond up to 32 downstream channels – enough to support downstream bursts of 1.2 Gbps in North American systems. DOCSIS 3.1, cable’s next-gen IP platform for HFC networks, is targeting multi-gigabit speeds.

Mediacom has not announced a rollout schedule for residential 1-Gig services, but Larsen noted that the MSO has plans to support DOCSIS 3.1 technology (the consumer-facing brand for it is “Gigasphere”) when it’s ready to go. D3.1 deployments are expected to start to ramp up in 2016.

“While we won’t rule out doing other 1-Gig launches using DOCSIS 3.0, I expect most of our future 1-Gig launches to utilize the Gigasphere technology when it becomes available,”  Larsen said.

“Our robust fiber network was designed with flexibility and scalability in mind, allowing us to cost-effectively turn Columbia, Jefferson City and Holts Summit into true gigabit communities,” said Ed Pardini, Mediacom’s SVP of field operations, in a statement, adding that Mediacom has invested more than $4 billion in infrastructure upgrades. “Unlike some other 1-Gig providers whose services are limited to selected neighborhoods, our gigabit speeds are available throughout the community to 100% of the homes and residences along our network.”

“High-speed Internet is critical to the economic well-being of Mid-Missouri as well as our entire state,” added Missouri State Senator Kurt Schaefer. “One-gigabit service will keep us competitive in attracting new employers as well as facilitating innovation in education and healthcare for our communities.”

Time Warner Cable said it is “well-positioned” to bring speeds of 1 Gbps across its Los Angeles footprint in the wake of a request for participants (RFP) issued by the city last week.

TWC  said it will be able to hit those speeds across the city, rather than just in individual neighborhoods, as DOCSIS 3.1  technology begins to mature. D3.1, which the cable industry is promoting under the “Gigasphere” consumer brand, will enable cable operators to deliver multi-gigabit speeds on their hybrid fiber/coax networks.

“As Gigasphere technology is introduced, we are well-positioned to deliver residential Internet speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second throughout our entire LA footprint—not just in a few neighborhoods—just as we said we would when we participated in the City’s RFI process.”

In July 2014, TWC said it was participating in a request for information about brining 1-gig to L.A. residences, businesses and city government facilities.

Last week the Los Angeles City Council approved a request for participants that seeks to identify one or more providers to commit to deploying wireline and WiFi networks that can provide speeds of 1 Gbps, and complete the job within the next five years.  That project, calledCityLinkLA, is allowing interested participants to bid on one or more quadrants.

In addition to providing 1 Gig wireline speeds, CityLinkLA’s requirments also call for WiFi that delivers 5 Mbps or second to every connected device (and to provide sufficient backhaul for 200 simultaneous users at 5 Mbps down by 1 Mbps upstream), and a free wireline service that delivers at least 5 Mbps/1 Mbps.

In exchange, the city said it will help to accelerate the pace of the buildouts with incentives that include expedited handling of applications for construction, space on some city property for hubs and central offices, and “favorable bulk rates” for access to city street light standards that can be used for WiFi access points.

TWC, which is in the process of being acquired by Charter Communications, noted that it completed its all-digital “TWC Maxx” upgrade in L.A. last year, enabling faster Internet speeds, including a new 300 Mbps (downstream) service and that it continues to expand its community WiFi network.

“As a result, Los Angeles now has one of the fastest and most advanced Internet infrastructures of any city in the nation,” TWC said.

“Of course, we are eager to work with the City to take advantage of new faster permitting processes and to gain access to the city resources that we need to further accelerate our path to gigabit Internet and add even more WiFi hotspots in the places where L.A. people work and play. We look forward to learning more about the process, which we can only assume will be fair and provide a level playing field for all service providers.”

The city, which will entertain demand-based proposals, has set a response date of Nov. 12, 2015.

About a year after the cable industry unveiled “Gigasphere” as the consumer-facing brand of the emerging DOCSIS 3.1 platform, it has followed up this week the launch of a microsite dedicated to the initiative.

The Gigasphere moniker was announced in tandem with the 2014 Cable Show in Los Angeles last April by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, in collaboration with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, CableLabs and Cable Europe. The Gigasphere logo showed up last fall.

The new microsite -- launched a few weeks before INTX: The Internet & Television Expo  (formerly known as The Cable Show) gets underway in Chicago -- offers high-level details about DOCSIS 3.1, a CableLabs-specified platform that will be capable of capacities of up to 10 Gbps downstream and as much as 2 Gbps upstream, focusing on how it will support new bandwidth-intensive apps and service such as 4K/Ultra HD and the smart home.

“Streaming video, online gaming, telemedicine, and the Internet of Things have transformed how we see the Internet and have challenged how we deliver it,” NCTA explained in this blog post about the Gigasphere site launch. “With Gigasphere technology, the same cable that we now use for broadband can be re-engineered to deliver multi-gig speeds and expansive capacities capable of catapulting us well into the future. Though Gigasphere is still in development, ISPs are already adopting the technology and plan on deploying soon.”

For those who are looking for a more technical readout of D3.1, the microsite’s  “peek under the hood” links over to this CableLabs page, which offers some nuts and bolts about the platform and access to the DOCSIS 3.1 specs themselves.  

But will Gigsasphere be used as a brand name or a product name? According to the FAQ, Gigasphere “is a category name, used to encompass the DOCSIS 3.1 platform itself as well as the many products and services the technical specification will enable. While it may be used in combination with specific products and services sold and marketed by cable companies, it’s not expected to be used as a brand name for any specific cable product line.”

Cox Communications, which will use a mix of fiber-to-the-home and D3.1 to deliver gigabit speeds, is using the “G1GABLAST” brand where it’s initially offering 1-gig over fiber. Comcast is using the Gigabit Pro brand for a residential 2-Gbps service that will be offered to millions of homes via fiber, though the MSO also intends to offer residential gigabit speeds on an even broader basis using DOCSIS 3.1. Comcast has begun to test DOCSIS 3.1-based traffic in the field ahead of expected broad scale rollouts next year.

Presenting a possible hint that Comcast is gearing up to launch a residential 1 Gbps broadband service, the operator recently filed a trademark application for “True Gig.”

The application, first spotted by The Donohue Report, was filed on October 20, 2014, and covers high-speed access via traditional ISP services, wireless and wireless, and different access technologies, including HFC and fiber.

Comcast, which declined to comment on the trademark application, has yet to launch a residential 1-Gig broadband service or announce when it might introduce such a service.  

The current, fastest residential broadband service offered by Comcast is Extreme 505, a $399.95  per month, targeted fiber-to-the-premises product that today offers 505 Mbps downstream by 100 Mbps upstream. Following its debut in the Northeastern U.S. in the fall of 2012, Comcast has since extended the reach of the product to include systems in MSO's South Division and Central Division.  Extreme 505 uses Comcast’s Metro Ethernet platform, which is capable of delivering multi-gigabit speeds to business customers.

Comcast’s current high-end DOCSIS 3.0 product offers max downstream speeds of 150 Mbps (Comcast is also expected to be among the most aggressive with DOCSIS 3.1, which will help cable deliver 1-Gig capacities over HFC).

And we’ll have to see what Comcast means by “True Gig,” if and when it decides to use the phrase in its advertising. It’s possible, I suppose, that Comcast could use it to describe a service that brings 1-Gig into the home and is complemented by residential gateways outfitted with 1-Gig-capable 802.11ac WiFi. Comcast has already begun to tout a new Cisco Systems-made D3.0 gateway that comes equipped with 802.11ac.

Whatever the case, it’s another example of how ISPs and industry organizations are gravitating toward product names and slogans with “Gig” in there somewhere.

Among other examples: AT&T is deploying “GigaPower,” Cox Communications is starting to roll out its “G1GABLAST” service in Phoenix, and the entire cable industry is starting to use the “Gigasphere” brand and logo as cable operators pursue DOCSIS 3.1 and the ability to deliver 1-Gig speeds on a broad basis.

Cable has its “Gigasphere,” but GVTC has its “GigaRegion.”

GVTC has launched a 1 Gbps Internet service spanning 2,200 miles of fiber across a 2,000 square-mile area, branded as its “GigaRegion,” that touches parts of Far North San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country, and Gonzales, Texas, and a total of about 40,000 homes. The plan is to expand fiber to an additional 2,600 homes in “select residential neighborhoods,” in the area, the company said in an announcement made Monday (Sept. 29).

The GVTC GigaRegion is a private-public partnership between the service provider and the cities of Boerne, Bulverde and Gonzales aimed at spurring economic development in the region.

According to this GVTC Web page, the company is selling a tier that offers 1 Gbps down by 100 Mbps upstream for $299.95 per month.

A video about the project presents a techno-vision and message that would seemingly rival Disney’s for EPCOT. “GVTC GigaRegion is more than just a smart home or office," the voice over proclaims. "The GVTC GigaRegion is smart living and the platform for cities of the future. It’s not just an ideal place to live, work and play, it’s the ideal place to thrive.”

“The companies that do their homework will understand what an innovative, technological  Utopia we’ve created,” Ritchie Sorrells, GVTC’s president and CEO, adds in the GigaRegion promotional reel. “They’ll jump on board and never look back. They’ll never have to. They will have enabled their businesses to embrace the next century in fiber optic evolution.”

Although GVTC is not pitching symmetric 1-Gig, its 1-Gig download service is being offered ahead of others in the region. In July, AT&T announced that it would roll its fiber-based, 1-Gig capable “GigaPower” network to parts of San Antonio, but has not announced an anticipated launch date. Google Fiber is also eyeing the region, with San Antonio having already approved a long-term, master lease deal that clears the way for the deployment of dozens of “fiber huts.”

Time Warner Cable, the area cable incumbent that’s in the process of being acquired by Comcast, has been deploying “TWC Maxx,” the label given to an all-digital upgrade project that will enable a high-end DOCSIS 3.0 tier that offers 300 Mbps in the downstream. San Antonio is among the markets that’s on tap for the TWC Maxx treatment in 2015. 

DENVER – Cable-Tec Expo -- The cable industry introduced “Gigasphere” as the consumer-facing brand for DOCSIS 3.1 at The Cable Show in April, and now it has a logo to go with it.

Mark Dzuban, the president and CEO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, flashed the logo during Tuesday’s opening session. I was not quick enough on the draw to take a snap, but an official with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association was kind enough to slip us a copy.

So, feast your eyes.

As a reminder , the NCTA, in collaboration with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), CableLabs and Cable Europe, teamed on the brand, which is emerging as cable operators start to prep for DOCSIS 3.1, a platform that promises to deliver 1-Gig speeds on a broad basis.

Here on Monday, CableLabs director of network technologies Belal Hamzeh said initial plugfests and interoperability tests are slated to be underway by December, with official certification and qualification against the DOCSIS 3.1 specs expected to be underewaay as early as the second quarter of 2015.

Los Angeles -- DOCSIS, the acronym long tied to cable’s broadband platform, isn’t going away, but it’s going to be pushed far into the background as far as consumers are concerned, with operators preparing to deploy a next-generation version that promises to pump out multi-gigabit speeds.

“Gigasphere” will become the consumer-facing name to represent DOCSIS 3.1 technology and services, it was announced here Tuesday by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, in collaboration with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), CableLabs and Cable Europe.

The brand shift comes ahead of DOCSIS 3.1 trials and rollouts and follows the release of the initial D3.1 product specs by CableLabs last October. Widespread deployments are likely at least two years away, but the platform is being crafted to pave the way for cable's all-IP transition and the targeting of data capacities of up to 10 Gbps downstream and as much as 2 Gbps upstream.

The Gigasphere brand will be used by member companies of NCTA, CableLabs, Cable Europe and other industry-based companies and organizations, to describe the technology, products and services delivered by the technology.  Additionally, it will serve, in part, “as a proxy for the specification around the globe” among consumers and non-technical groups, the NCTA said.

At first blush, the brand appears to be latching onto the "Gig" moniker as Google Fiber expands its 1-Gig network in markets such as Kansas City; Provo, Utah; and, later this year, in Austin, Texas. Cable's coming use of the Gigasphere name also comes into play as AT&T threatens to expand the reach of its 1-Gig-capable, fiber-based platform, U-verse with GigaPower.

Cable marketers and communications executives will develop guidelines for proper usage of Gigasphere, but didn’t announce a specific timeline. Work on additional branding, including a new Gigasphere, logo, will be among the tasks to be tackled immediately after the show, an NCTA official said.

DOCSIS won’t be going completely away. The acronym will remain in use by CableLabs, cable engineers and the technical community, the NCTA noted.

“As we transition to faster and better broadband enabled by this new technology, we must help consumers understand its potential to dramatically enhance our communities, our world, and our lives,” Michael Powell, NCTA’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Gigasphere stands for incredibly fast access to the Web, the world, and the things that matter most to broadband users.  It breathes life into the breadth, scope, scale, opportunity, and impact of this next-generation technology.”