Cox has reached out to us to note that they're launching their faster 50 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream "Ultimate Internet" service in Las Vegas today. The company's faster DOCSIS 3.0 service, already launched in parts of Rhode Island, Arizona, Northern Virginia, and Lafayette, Louisiana, varies by price depending on the level of local competition. In Lafayette, Louisiana -- where Cox competes with a municipally built fiber operation (and symmetrical 10-50 Mbps service), the price for Cox's 50 Mbps has dropped as low as $90 a month.

In Las Vegas, where Cox's most serious competitor is Embarq (now CenturyLink), Cox says the tier will cost $119.99 per month, plus the $99.99 (or less) DOCSIS 3.0 modem.

"Cox Ultimate Internet will give our customers an online experience that allows them to do more, do it faster and perform it more reliably than with any Internet provider in Southern Nevada or anywhere else in our state using a non-fiber delivery system," says Cox Senior VP in Las Vegas Marilyn Burrows. Interestingly, Cox clearly identifies this as not fiber, despite their part in a cable industry marketing effort to confuse customers into thinking that core and last mile fiber are the same thing.

Of course with no major fiber to the home competition in Vegas to speak of, it's not like Cox really has to worry about it. At a special lunchtime press conference outside of the company's Henderson Retail Store, Cox demonstrated the new tier in a race versus a "key local competitor's top-speed of 10 Mbps" (again that's Embarq, for those playing along at home). Cox's statement to the press doesn't indicate who won -- but we'll assume Cox did.

Update: An inside tipster at CenturyLink claims to that the company will be offering ADSL2 in Las Vegas starting later this week, with speeds up to 25 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up.