Comcast Gigabit Footprint Expansion Announcements Continue, But Details Are Few

The Comcast Gigabit public relations machine is in full swing, with several new markets for their 2 Gigabit service, Gigabit Pro, announced for future roll outs. The new markets include parts of Utah, Colorado (Denver and Colorado Springs), Houston, Oregon, and Washington. Beyond announced markets, there is very little known about Comcast’s Gigabit Pro service and not one paying residential customer has subscribed to the service. These new Gigabit Pro markets join the previously announced markets of Atlanta (GA), parts of California, Chattanooga (TN), Chicago (IL), parts of Florida and Nashville (TN). As I previously noted, Comcast (and others) seem to be taking their time, or maybe avoiding altogether, Verizon FiOS markets with these Gigabit services. Comcast has committed to passing 18 million homes with the Comcast fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service by the end of 2015.

Very few details beyond these announced markets is known about Gigabit Pro. Comcast says that only homes “within close proximity of Comcast’s fiber network” will be eligible and they will “require installation of professional-grade equipment.” In practice, little is known about what that really means. Is this a “fiberhood approach” like Google, where they will identify specific neighborhoods to target, or is it a case-by-case basis? Does the ongoing reference to “require installation of professional-grade equipment” translate to a high installation cost to the end customer?