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.”
