Throughout 2015 companies like Google Fiber have gradually expanded their service to more and more cities across the country, other ISPs have turned their attention towards providing gigabit internet as well, and now Comcast is finally rolling out its very own service. Comcast has confirmed that it has set up the first customer to its 1000 Mbps down and up service in Philadelphia.
Comcast is doing things a bit differently than Google Fiber which actually lays down new fiber connections to customers’ houses. The company is relying on the new DOCSIS 3.1 standard that works over existing “hybrid fiber coaxial” networks.
What this means is that Comcast doesn’t need to spend as much money to get the groundwork done, and once the system is in place, the company can connect most if not all of its customers in that particular market.
To receive gigabit speed customers will need to first receive new hardware from Comcast which will also need to deploy new software to the nodes that serve those neighborhoods, only then will customers be able to take advantage of the gigabit service.
Comcast has not yet confirmed how much it’s going to charge for this service but it does promise that its gigabit internet service will be live in “several parts of the country” before the end of next year.
Filed in . Read more about Comcast, Gigabit and Google Fiber. Source: corporatecast