User tater_gunz writes in: "Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that Toledo-based Buckeye Cablesystem has just announced a new 20Mbps/1.5 Mbps Buckeye Express ("BEX") tier." The addition would come just seven months after the carrier announced their $80 (unbundled) 12Mbps tier. According to the Buckeye website, the new tier is arriving December 8 . The tier is only being offered to "VIP" (video, internet and phone) bundle customers for an additional $10 to whatever they're paying now (see VIP pdf). Buckeye has also been hinting to the press that DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade announcements should be coming shortly.

User hottboiinnc drops me a line this afternoon to note that Buckeye Cable in Ohio has started offering a new 12Mbps/1Mbps tier for $70 a month if you bundle. Apparently the upgrades hit user modems in late April, but the new speed wasn't official until May 1. You might recall I wrote about them back in 2002 for their efforts to prosecute modem uncappers. The 12Mbps speed is likely a competitive response to AT&T's U-Verse VDSL service, launched in Ohio last June.

Though we've already discussed that most cable operators will be following Comcast's lead on DOCSIS 3.0 deployments (hey, who'll ever need a 50-100Mbps connection anyway, right?), Light Reading has a bit more detail on deployments by Cox and Rogers. Cox does appear set to offer asymmetrical pre-cert DOCSIS 3.0 later this year in areas where it faces competition (read: FiOS). Canadian operator Rogers, without FiOS to nudge them along, won't be deploying the technology until 2009 or 2010. Toledo, based Buckeye CableSystem (you might recall them from when they waged war against modem uncappers back in 2002) jokes that they're "waiting as fast as we can on this."