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Report: Comcast Gigabit Cable Coming to Jacksonville

Comcast has already launched its ultra-fast gigabit broadband service in select parts of Nashville, Atlanta, and most recently Chicago. Comcast says it will also be launching the service in parts of Detroit and Miami before the end of the year as part of a "trial" deployment that will slowly but surely expand to all of the company's markets in time. Beyond that the company has generally remained quiet, but a spokesman appears to have accidentally informed the Jacksonville Business Journal that Jacksponville is on the list of gigabit cities slated for early next year.

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"At the end of the day, this is exciting for people who want to get gig speed over a cable connection without fiber," Comcast spokesperson Cindy Arco tells the paper.

"This is for when the economics and instalation and timelines are not feasible, it’s a more seamless transition for people who want high-speed internet and want to go this way.”

Granted, the same report claims that DOCSIS 3.1, a fixed line coaxial technology, will "allow for internet service of 1 Gigabit per second wirelessly to businesses and homes," so keep several grains of salt on hand.

In Atlanta and Nashville, Comcast charges users $70 a month for the 1 Gbps down, 35 Mbps up tier with no caps -- but only if users sign a three year contract. Users who refuse a contract in those markets need to pay $140 per month, and be subject to Comcast usage caps. It's Comcast's not-so-subtle way of pushing customers toward long-term contracts ahead of expected Google Fiber launched in those two cities. Comcast says the same promotional rate is being used in Chicago, but the company appears to be actively hiding the option.

When pressed, Comcast gave Fierce Cable a bit of a non-answer when asked about the report of Jacksonville as an early gigabit launch market.

"As you know, earlier this year Comcast announced plans to introduce the world’s first DOCSIS 3.1-powered gigabit internet service to residential and business customers in a number of markets including Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, Detroit, and Miami," said the company. "Regarding plans for additional markets or timing, we have nothing to announce at this time."

Given the relatively low cost of DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades (especially in comparison to fiber), the company expects to offer gigabit cable connections to the lion's share of its customers by the end of next year.
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FarmerBob
join:2000-12-21
Littleton, CO
Calix 716GE-I
Netgear Orbi RBK853
Netgear RAXE500

FarmerBob

Member

Just got flyer for Denver in the mail . . .

They ran the lines many months ago and we have been waiting to hear something. Today got a not very informative card in the mail. Went to the website, entered my address and there wasn't much of a deal, but it looks like it's available here in the South burbs of Denver.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

1 recommendation

Anonymous_

Premium Member

Re: Just got flyer for Denver in the mail . . .

35mbps is not even enough for tcp overhead

FarmerBob
join:2000-12-21
Littleton, CO
Calix 716GE-I
Netgear Orbi RBK853
Netgear RAXE500

FarmerBob

Member

Re: Just got flyer for Denver in the mail . . .

Yup. Standard CL pathetic. I don't know why they even ran lines. I worked for USWest and a bit for Qwest, but once CL came in I dumped all services and even went with the big "C" and VoIP just to get away from them and took the whole neighborhood with me..

ilikeme
Premium Member
join:2002-08-27
Stafford, TX

ilikeme

Premium Member

Surprised there has been no mention of Houston

We have some competition here with Gigapower in quite a few locations around town (and still growing) and some areas also have Entouch, Tachus, and or Phonoscope gigabit. Windstream is also starting to provide gigabit in Sugar Land.

karpodiem
Hail to The Victors
Premium Member
join:2008-05-20
Troy, MI

karpodiem

Premium Member

Radio Silence in Detroit

Which was supposed to be one of the 3.1 cities (along with Seattle, I think?) lit up by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile, Rocket Fiber is growing

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: Radio Silence in Detroit

said by karpodiem:

one of the 3.1 cities (along with Seattle, I think?)

They definitely are doing something here, the timing of which is still a little mysterious .
no great hurry for ME, but always curious about what's next/worth a try.

Titus
Mr Gradenko
join:2004-06-26

Titus

Member

"At the end of the day"

when all is said and done, well after the final analysis and when the fat lady has sung, the fact of the matter is it's still Comcast and they suck.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Parts of CT left out

We're still on 650mhz and 625mhz systems in several CT markets. They can't do gigabit without an 860mhz system. That being said, the lousy channel lineup and absurdly overpriced internet are more of a concern than a bunch of speed that no one needs. I just dropped my 150/10 Blast! to go back to 75/5, as it's not worth the $13/mo for the extra upload, and the download isn't really any faster on our ancient 625mhz system with 8 DOCSIS QAMs.