Applying some pressure to Charter Communications and Verizon Fios, competitive cabler RCN said it has introduced a DOCSIS 3.1-powered 1-Gig residential broadband service in New York City.
The service, offered in its “serviceable areas” in NYC, including Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, starts at $69.99 per month for the first 12 months. RCN has not announced what the pricing will be after that first year. The operator has set up a web page where prospective customers can check to see if 1-Gig is available in their respective neighborhoods. RCN introduced a 330 Mbps residential tier in NYC in late 2014.
The NYC 1-Gig debut, follows RCN’s recent announcement that it was closing in on a DOCSIS 3.1 launch in Chicago, where it competes with Comcast and AT&T. In Chicago, RCN is also touting a 1-Gig (downstream) service paired with an upstream that maxes at 20 Mbps for $69.99 per month for the first 12 months. RCN does not cap its residential broadband service.
RCN has not announced when it plans to extend D3.1 service to markets such as Boston, Lehigh Valley (Pa.), Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC.
But RCN is beating the competition to the punch with a residential 1-Gig service in NYC. Verizon Fios’s current high-end product delivers symmetrical speeds of 500 Mbps. Prior to being acquired by Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable introduced a DOCSIS 3.0-based 300-Meg service in NYC as part of the MSO’s “Maxx” upgrades (those upgrades were put under review by Charter following the merger).
Altice, which competes with RCN to a smaller degree, recently launched a 300 Mbps residential high-speed Internet service in New York.
“1 Gigabit is a giant leap forward in Internet technology and RCN is the first provider to offer this new service at an affordable price to residents of New York City,” Bruce Abbott, VP, and General Manager of RCN New York, said in a statement.
Watch this RCN promo about the new 1-Gig offering:
[embed]https://vimeo.com/184366440[/embed]
