Mediacom Communications has launched DOCSIS 3.1-based gigabit Internet service across its entire Huntsville, AL, area service territory. In addition to Huntsville, the launch includes 18 communities in Madison County and Limestone County, AL, and Giles County and Lincoln County, TN.
The company plans to use DOCSIS 3.1 "Gigasphere" to bring gigabit broadband services to virtually all of the 3 million homes and businesses within its 22-state footprint. To date, Mediacom has launched 1 Gpbs Internet services in more than 350 communities, and the company plans to expand deployments throughout the year as DOCSIS 3.1 modems become more readily available. In conjunction with each gigabit deployment, Mediacom will also introduce a new 500 Mbps tier of service.
"In addition to enhancing speeds for residential and small business customers today, the Gigasphere platform we have deployed also lays the groundwork for offering multi-Gig services in the future," said Mediacom's Chief Technology Officer JR Walden. "This next generation technology is an excellent complement to the Gigabit+ Fiber Solutions that Mediacom Business has been offering local businesses in our markets for many years."
In December, Mediacom announced plans to upgrade its networks to DOCSIS 3.1 across its footprint, and last month it went live with DOCSIS 3.1-based gigabit service in all of its Iowa systems. The network upgrades are based on a mix of Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) gear from Casa Systems and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), the C100G and cBR-8 respectively. The company plans to use a mix of modems from various vendors as well. Mediacom is using Technicolor TM4400 modems in Huntsville.
Despite its relatively small size (population 186,000), Huntsville is one of the better connected municipalities in the country. In addition to Mediacom, both WOW! and AT&T (NYSE:T) offer gigabit Internet services in the city, and Google FIber (NASDAQ:GOOG) is working with Huntsville Utilities to build a gigabit-capable fiber network there.