Just over a month after beginning its DOCSIS 4.0 deployment, Comcast is expanding its symmetrical multi-gig service to the Atlanta metro area.
The operator first introduced its X-Class Internet package in Colorado Springs, offering speed tiers of 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1-gig and 2-gig. Comcast previously announced it would be launching DOCSIS 4.0 technology in Atlanta and Philadelphia before year-end.
X-Class Internet plans are currently available for residential customers in select Atlanta neighborhoods. Comcast plans to offer symmetrical multi-gig speeds to Atlanta business customers and additional markets in Georgia sometime in 2024.
Tony Speller, SVP of technical operations and engineering at Comcast Central Division, stated Comcast is “the first to introduce DOCSIS 4.0 and multi-gig symmetrical speeds to the Atlanta market.”
Comcast Cable Chief Network Officer Elad Nafshi told Fierce in October the operator’s DOCSIS 4.0 deployment is the first “anywhere in the planet.”
He also said customers will be able to get a brand-new DOCSIS 4.0 modem when they sign up for an X-Class Internet plan.
For its deployment Comcast is leveraging a full-duplex (FDX) DOCSIS 4.0 method, which means it uses noise cancellation to allow upstream and downstream traffic to be transmitted over 1.2GHz of spectrum.
Other cable operators, such as Charter and Cox, are taking the extended spectrum (ESD) approach, which increases spectrum to 1.8GHz and divides it into dedicated chunks for upstream and downstream traffic flows.
Charter and Cox have said they’re prepping to begin DOCSIS 4.0 deployments in late 2024 and 2025, respectively. Though in Charter’s case, CEO Chris Winfrey said last month it may “modestly slow [its] network evolution plan” as it eyes more opportunities to build subsidized rural passings.
As for Cox, SVP of Engineering Guy McCormick told Fierce in March the operator is trialing an asymmetrical 2-gig offering and is “pretty confident” it can deploy those speeds to as much as half of its footprint by the end of this year