[1st-mile-nm] Comcast offers Utah customers 1-Gig internet

[Richard Lowenberg]

This article does not mention UTOPIA, serving the same service areas.
It will not extend to underserved rural areas of Utah.
RL
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Comcast offers Utah customers 1-Gig internet.
Service available to all areas served by the cable company.

By TOM HARVEY | The Salt Lake Tribune
Apr 25 2017

http://www.sltrib.com/home/5213417-155/comcast-offers-utah-customers-1-gig-internet

Comcast is launching its new 1-gigabit-per-second internet service 
Tuesday, making Utah the first where the cable company has rolled out 
the super fast speeds to all its customers in a single state.

Comcast says anyone in its service area now may order the service, which 
the company is offering in competition with CenturyLink and Google 
Fiber, whose comparable services are available only in certain areas.

While Comcast has been testing the service in other areas, "Utah is the 
first state that gets it rolled out as a whole throughout our entire 
footprint," said Leslie Oliver, director of external affairs.

Many of Comcast's current internet customers receive a 150-megabit 
service now. It can download a two-hour movie in about a minute and a 
half. With the 1-gigabit service, that same movie will take eight 
seconds to download.

"We just not taking an incremental step here," said Mike Spaulding, 
Comcast's vice president of engineering. "We're taking a step forward in 
terms of speed availability to our consumers."

The cost is planned at $159.95 a month without a contract, but two 
promotions also are being tested to boost participation.

One will offer the service for $70 a month in certain Salt Lake City, 
Provo and North Ogden areas. The other promotion will be for $109.99 a 
month across the rest of the state.

The service runs over the company's existing cable network and requires 
only the installation of a modem with a built-in home wireless network.

It's the wireless component that excites Merlin Jensen, area vice 
president for Utah and Arizona.

"We will have the fastest in-home wireless experience for customers," he 
said.

Comcast's service area stretches north to south from Logan to Spanish 
Fork, and east to west from Park City/Heber City to Tooele.

CenturyLink has been offering super fast internet speeds in Utah 
starting at $79.99 a month. But it's not currently available in all 
areas served by the company, which is building a fiber-optic network.

Company spokeswoman Michelle Jackson said CenturyLink offers 1-gig 
service to more than 100,000 homes and businesses but wouldn't say how 
many now subscribe.

"We are continuing to aggressively expand our gigabit service offering 
to both businesses and residents," she said in a statement, which also 
said slower speeds were sufficient for most consumers.

Google Fiber currently offers 1-gig service in Provo and certain areas 
of Salt Lake City for $70 a month.

The company bought Provo's fiber optic network four years ago and has 
been building a network in Salt Lake City, where it now offers service 
in neighborhoods that include downtown and parts of the university area 
and Sugar House.

Google Fiber also said it is continuing to build its network to serve 
more homes and businesses.

But it's that piecemeal approach, and the need to build out networks 
before even being able to offer the speedy service, that Comcast 
apparently sees as its competitors' vulnerability.



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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