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

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

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

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

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

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

Suddenlink Communications has begun to roll out the E6000, Arris’s flagship, high-density converged cable access platform (CCAP) that supports DOCSIS 3.0 today, and will be  upgradable to DOCSIS 3.1, cable’s emerging multi-gigabit IP platform.

With the E6000 (pictured), Suddenlink can provide customers with high-speed data services of 1Gbps and beyond, Arris noted.

Suddenlink’s deployment of the E6000 comes about nine months after the cable operator  announced “Operation Gigaspeed,” an initiative that will position Suddenlink to deliver 1-Gig speeds. At the time, Suddenlink said it will raise its top high-speed Internet speeds to 1 Gbps in 90% of its footprint by 2017.

"We're committed to providing consumers with the connected experiences they want, and as a result, our customer base is growing rapidly," Ivan Lamoureux, Suddenlink’s vice president of network engineering, said in a statement. "The E6000 CER is a key part of this commitment and our technology infrastructure."

The E6000’s “density saves valuable space and power while delivering remarkable downstream and upstream capacity,” Bruce McClelland, president of network and cloud and global services at Arris, added. “Most importantly, it protects customer investments, offering a clear path to the future transition to DOCSIS 3.1 and the ability to support data services of 1Gbps and beyond.”