That puts it ahead of Google’s own 1Gbps symmetrical fiber service — or AT&T’s in Kansas City, if you let them spy on you for the privilege of paying them for their own product. Google plans to roll out its own service to 34 new cities in 2015, although we’re still waiting for someone to launch gigabit fiber in big ones like San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, and Boston.Comcast may be evil incarnate in some ways, but it’s also rolling out some seriously fast hardware. Today the company announced that 2Gbps fiber service will be available to 1.5 million Atlanta customers beginning this month. Called Gigabit Pro, Comcast claims it’s the fastest available in the country for home users, and will deliver 2Gbps both down and up.
“Gigabit Pro is a professional-grade residential fiber-to-the-home solution that leverages our fiber network to deliver 2 Gbps upload and download speeds. We’ve spent a decade building a national fiber backbone across 145,000 route miles of fiber” in advance of the launch, the company wrote. It adds that the new service will require professional installation, and that the company plans to reach 18 million homes by the end of the year.
“Our approach is to offer the most comprehensive rollout of multi-gigabit service to the most homes as quickly as possible, not just to certain neighborhoods,” said Doug Guthrie, SVP of Comcast Cable’s South Region, in a separate statement that’s a clear shot at Google’s slow rollout.
The new offering is a big jump from its existing 505Mbps home service, which costs a whopping $399 per month. It’s doubtful 2Gbps will be cheap, either, although there are also plans for a 1Gbps fiber service in the works that could put it more in line with Google Fiber’s $70-per-month price point. “Gigabit Pro isn’t the only way we plan to bring gigabit speeds to customers’ homes,” Comcast said. “We are currently testing DOCSIS 3.1, a scalable, national, next generation 1 Gbps technology solution. We hope to begin rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 in early 2016.”
Keep in mind that Comcast is vehemently opposed to net neutrality rules, so you’re not going to see us breaking out the champagne over the company’s latest claims. In 2014, Comcast spent almost $17 million lobbying on the federal level alone. 2Gbps fiber isn’t enough to make us forget that, especially in just one city — although more competition for Google and AT&T is always a good thing. Not that ISPs would ever admit it themselves. Still, breaking the 2Gbps barrier is worth at least some applause, at least once it’s actually available.
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