Cox service in Northern Virginia was at one time quite possibly the worst service area in the nation, with slow speeds, poor service, and users facing quadruple digit ping times. Three years later finds the region offering 15Mbps, the fastest cable broadband speeds in the country.

A skirmish between Cox and Fairfax county started in 1999, when the cable company purchased the network of Media General. Cox was slow to update the newly acquired networks - which - if you take a trip back to our forums in 2001, offered a connection quality easily bested by a 300baud modem hooked to a Wildcat! BBS.

Fairfax County took action against the provider for delays, and hit them with a $2 million fine. They then began fining them $2,000 each day they failed to meet upgrade obligations. By 2003, the half-a-billion dollar upgrade of the old Media General network began to take shape.

Users were bumped to 3Mbps by mid 2003, and 4Mbps in mid 2004. We also must note that their presence and support in our forums has been - like SBC and a few other providers - exemplary.

That brings us to yesterday, when we learned that standard customers would have their speeds bumped to 5Mbps, and "Premier" customers would be bumped to 15Mbps downstream and 2Mbps upstream ($55 bundled). That makes Cox - at least in one area - the fastest cable provider in the country.

That's still more expensive than Verizon's Fios, but it is the first major shot in the next generation network battle, and is a moment of considerable note.

Northern Virginia Cox Director of Public Affairs Alex Horwitz tells us the speed upgrades will also be available in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and Stafford. Horwitz noted he was not aware of any other areas (see Cox service map) that would be seeing the upgrade.

Northern Virginia is a case-study for how competition (and complaints) brings progress. But what about Cox's other, traditionally neglected markets?