Cox Communications’s residential 1-Gig march continued this week with the debut of the MSO’s “G1GABLAST” service in parts of Northern Virginia, where the operator tangles with Verizon FiOS, a fiber-fed platform that currently tops out at 500 Mbps.
Cox billed the launch as the first gigabit service in the DC Metro area (Comcast has not yet made Gigabit Pro, its residential 2 Gbps FTTP offering, available in the Washington, D.C. area) . Early on, Cox is offering 1-Gig residential broadband to residents at Timber Ridge at Discovery Square in Fairfax County.
Cox recently expanded G1GABLAST to parts of Providence, the service’s initial entry into the Rhode Island market, and has it deployed it to portions of Phoenix; Las Vegas; Omaha; San Diego; Orange County; Baton Rouge; Hampton Roads, Va.; Northwest Arkansas; Wichita; Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
In Northern Virginia, Cox is selling G1GABLAST for $99.99 per month when bundled with other Cox services.
Cox currently offers 1-Gig using fiber-to-the-premises technology, and has plans to deliver gigabit speeds using DOCSIS 3.1, cable’s next-gen IP platform for HFC networks as Cox fulfills its plan to begin market-wide deployment of 1-Gig broadband by the end of 2016.
“We are excited to deliver the choice of gigabit speeds to our customers,” said Cox Communications president Pat Esser said in a statement. “Coupled with our 2,400 employees throughout Cox Virginia and more than 24,000 nationwide, our latest investments and the deployment of the fastest speeds available are powering economic growth and development for businesses and residents of the communities we serve.”
“Cox has invested $1.33 billion in our network in Virginia in the last ten years to meet the growing demands of our customers,” added Cox Virginia SVP and regional manager J.D. Myers II. “We are committed to keeping our residential and businesses customers in Northern Virginia connected to the things they care about most, today and in the years to come."
