Cox Communications says 90% of its customers now have access to gigabit Internet speeds. The company expects its GIGABLAST service to be available to 99% of its customers by the end of next year.
"As households continue to add more gadgets to the home network, the quality of the user experience can vary significantly based on quality of the home WiFi network," said Kevin Hart, executive vice president, chief product and technology officer at Cox. "Robust gig speeds paired with our Panoramic WiFi gateway will ensure everyone in your household gets the experience they expect from all their personal technology."
In other Cox news, the company is sponsoring a smart cities initiative in San Diego with Smart Cities Accelerator, Labs + Environment (SCALE) San Diego, US Ignite and the city of San Diego. The two-year project is intended to develop a Smart Gigabit Communities (SGC) Program called IGNITE | SCALE | SAN DIEGO. The program's goal is to select and pilot transformative projects to provide innovative advances to the city, community and beyond.
Through a series of community events and hackathon challenges, IGNITE | SCALE | SAN DIEGO will select and produce two winning projects/solutions each year in 2019 and 2020 that will be piloted by the city. Ultimately, the solutions will be implemented operationally by either the city of San Diego or another SGC partner city.
"The IGNITE | SCALE | SAN DIEGO program provides the framework to identify actionable requirements to key urban problems such as transportation, low-medium income neighborhoods and city planning," said SCALE San Diego Co-Founder and Managing Partner Daniel Obodovski. "We want these projects to develop into real-world solutions, implemented by the city of San Diego or incubated as new companies."
Participants in the program - students, technologists, scientists, entrepreneurs and others - receive continued mentorship from SCALE San Diego and its community partners, as well as stakeholder feedback, networking opportunities, and monetary awards.
US Ignite launched the Smart Gigabit Communities movement in 2012 as a collaborative effort with the White House and the National Science Foundation.
Cox is also supporting the 2019 International Consumer Electronics Show, held annually at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). Last year, CES hosted more than 180,000 attendees, 4,400 companies and 1,000 speakers. At CES 2018, Cox moved more than 8.6 terabytes (TB) of data on the show's WiFi network alone and nearly 40 TB of data in total Internet traffic, across more than 288,00 devices.
The Cox telecom infrastructure at CES includes 2,100 WiFi access points, redundant 10 Gbps backbone Internet connections and a distributed antenna system (DAS) equivalent to 14 cell towers inside the convention center. Cox also supports the 14-screen, seven-location digital signage network within the LVCC facility, including two new 40-foot LED screens in the concourse, and creates and manages the displayed content.
