Comcast has revealed its plan to introduce the first DOCSIS 3.1-powered Gigabit Internet service in the world to both residential and business customers in Nashville and Atlanta early this year, and to customers in Miami, Detroit and Chicago in the second half of 2016.
Last month, Comcast successfully installed the company's first DOCSIS 3.1 modem in Philadelphia, and a few days later, it was also able to do so in Atlanta.
The new network technology will be able to provide Xfinity and Comcast Business Internet clients with gigabit speeds for the first time, over communications lies that most of the company's customers already have inside their homes and offices.
According to Comcast Central Division President Bill Connors, the new technology will combine with the upgrades that the company has already made to its advanced fiber topic-coax network to provide users with more speed choices. Ultra-fast Internet speeds will also be eventually made available to most homes in Comcast's service areas.
Comcast's Gigabit Internet service is the company's answer to Google's Fiber and Verizon's FiOS. The service offers customers with download speeds of 1,000 Mbps, which is far faster compared to what most Americans are currently enjoying with their Internet connections. At such a speed, an HD movie can be downloaded in just 7 seconds.
The selling point of Comcast's Gigabit Internet is that, unlike other services that require upgrading to high-speed but expensive fiber optic cables, it only requires an upgrade to existing cables. While Google Fiber is required to build an entirely new infrastructure, Comcast will be able to utilize the cables that are already present to provide the massively fast connection speeds.
Customers that choose to sign up with the service will need to swap out the cable modems they currently use for the DOCSIS 3.1 ones which support the new technology.
Comcast, however, has not yet revealed how much Gigabit Internet will cost, though it will surely be cheaper compared to the Gigabit Pro service that charges $300 per month for speeds of up to 2,000 Mbps.
"We don't have product details to share today in terms of price or data plans," said a spokesman for Comcast.
