Confirming our earlier reports, Comcast has formally launched the company's ultra fast 1 Gbps cable broadband service in Nashville. The Comcast announcement doesn't call it a full launch, instead stating the company is "beginning an advanced consumer trial" of the 1 Gbps downstream, 35 Mbps upstream cable broadband service in Nashville. Nashville is Comcast's second DOCSIS 3.1-based, gigabit broadband service launch market after Atlanta came online back in March.
As with the Atlanta launch, there's some major caveats when it comes to pricing.
Customers can get the 1 Gbps service for $70 per month if they sign a three year contract. Customers unwilling to sign a long-term contract will have to pay $140 per month for the service. In another wrinkle, the $70 per month option won't have usage caps, but users going the non-contract route will face a 1 terabyte cap -- and have to pay $10 per each additional 50 gigabytes consumed. Users also have the option of paying an extra $50 each month to avoid the caps entirely.
That's Comcast's not-so-subtle way of trying to get locals locked down in ultra-long contracts before Google Fiber's network expands in the city.
"We’re delivering on our promise to make Nashville customers among the first in the world to enjoy this new Gigabit technology," said Comcast Regional SVP Doug Guthrie. "The capabilities of DOCSIS 3.1 are incredibly exciting, and we are proud to be the first to market with a Gigabit offering that runs over our existing cable infrastructure."
From the announcement Comcast makes it clear the service won't be available to everyone in Nashville out of the gate. Locals interested in seeing if they can qualify for the ultra-fast service can head to
this website to plug in their account information and request more detail.