Comcast Business plans to add more Gig to Gig City next month.
The business division of the cable TV giant has completed a multi-million-dollar fiber optic network across greater Chattanooga that is capable of delivering up to 10-gigabit-per-second internet speeds to local businesses.
The fiber-based Ethernet service, which Comcast will begin selling to business and government users starting next month, will boost internet speeds on Comcast Business plans from a maximum of 250 megabits per second up to 10 gigabits per second. That matches the ultra-fast 10 Gig internet connectivity debuted last fall in Chattanooga by EPB.
“Chattanooga is clearly a market that is growing and has established itself on the forefront of technology leadership,” Cleve Lewis, regional vice president of business services for Comcast, said Wednesday. “What we wanted to do was make this investment to be able to deliver the nation’s fastest speeds, not just to businesses in Chattanooga, but to any business across our footprint in the greater Chattanooga area.”
Wednesday’s announcement of the faster Comcast Business service follows other product launches in Chattanooga by Comcast in the past couple of years, including the launch of Gigabit Pro, Comcast’s 2-gigabit-per-second internet service, and hundreds of Xfinity WiFi hotspots across the marketplace.
“This effort will accelerate local economic growth and business opportunities for existing organizations and help attract new industries,” Lewis said. “When businesses locate or expand now, they are making technology infrastructure a huge part of those decisions.”
The upgraded bandwidth capability also will help Comcast compete with EPB, the municipal power utility that pioneered the nation’s first-gigabit-per-second internet service across its entire service territory in 2010, and AT&T, which is accelerating its deployment of high-speed internet service and already offers some multi-gig connections to selected businesses in Chattanooga and Cleveland.
EPB has capitalized on the first-in-the-nation Gig service by branding Chattanooga as “the Gig City.”
Comcast spokeswoman Sara Jo Walker said more than 200 miles of fiber lines have been added in the Chattanooga area by Comcast and the new service will deploy fiber to each business that signs up for the 10 gig service. Other new technologies being tested now in Nashville and other cities should soon allow 1 gigabit-per-second service over existing coaxial lines.
Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville and Huntsville already have 10 gig capability for Comcast business customers, “which has been very well received,” Lewis said.
Nationally, Comcast Business’ Ethernet services are delivered over an advanced network that spans 140,000 miles and features a 100 Gbps backbone. Bandwidth is available up to 10 Gbps and can be scaled in increments and offered in three different classes of service.
Comcast public relations director Alex Horwitz said a key advantage for Comcast as a national company is its bigger coverage footprint and its ability to link high-speed data connections within a company having multiple city locations without having to go off net.
“Our ability to reach businesses across all of greater Chattanooga – and not just certain areas – sets us apart from other competitors,” he said. “Our 10-gig network will serve Hamilton County initially. We then plan to expand it across McMinn County and parts of Polk County in Tennessee, as well as to Walker County in Georgia.”
Lewis said Comcast customers “will have a dedicated connection with our nationwide fiber network.
“From a security standpoint there are also real advantages to having everything connected on the same dedicated network to allow for better security and more ease of services,” he said.
Comcast plans to begin selling the new service on July 1 and hopes to have the first new deployments by this fall.
Comcast will offer Ethernet Private Line, a point-to-point connectivity between two customer sites for bandwidth-intensive applications; Ethernet Virtual Private Line, a point-to-multipoint connection to enable customers to tailor bandwidth, performance characteristics, and cost; Ethernet Network Service, a multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity to connect organizations with multiple locations across Comcast’s network; and Ethernet Dedicated Internet, a continuous, high-bandwidth connectivity between customers’ LANs and the public internet.
“With Comcast offering 2-gig speeds to residents, and now 10-gig speeds to businesses, the Gig City has never been a more attractive destination for those wanting the nation’s fastest speeds,” Horwitz said.
Local officials welcome the extra speeds on the information superhighway.
“Innovations and technologies, such as Comcast’s new multi-gig service for businesses, reinforces Chattanooga as a top destination for companies requiring the most advanced technology available,” Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said in a statement today.
So far, the demand and use of Gig service has been limited. But backers of the technology insist faster bandwidths and internet capabilities will be needed as more data and video is transmitted over the internet.
Jutin Junda, chief technology officer for the Lamp Post Group, said the addition of the faster Comcast service “will make Chattanooga an even more attractive spot for businesses to locate their operations.”
EPB launched 10-gigabit Next- Next service in October 2015. Both EPB’s 10-Gig and 1-Gig NextNet Internet products are accessible to all residential and commercial customers in EPB’s 600-square-mile footprint.
A study of EPB by the UTC school of business estimated that the fiber optic system and the smart grid that it enables on EPB’s electric lines has generated $865 million of business savings, new investments and economic growth in Chattanooga.
While more than 82,000 EPB customers are signed up for fiber optic telecom services, so far, only 7,700 customers have signed up for 1-Gig and only two are 10-Gig NextNet customers.
“EPB is proud to serve as a catalyst for competition in the Chattanooga area,” Harold DePriest, CEO of EPB, said in a statement Wednesday.
DePriest said EPB’s “unmatched level of speed and responsiveness in providing customized solutions to local businesses” has helped win over business customers.
For its part, AT&T said it has had gig service for businesses in Chattanooga for years and is moving toward offering even faster service of up to 100 Gigs later this year.
“We offer a variety of speeds through dedicated access products such as Ethernet, VPN and Managed Internet Services,” AT&T Tennessee spokesman Joe Burgan said. “In Tennessee’s largest cities, including Chattanooga, we’ve been offering 10 Gigabit Ethernet for almost a decade and we’ll be bringing up to 100G capability to Chattanooga this summer.”
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.