Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR), according to an article in DSL Reports citing one of the MSO's technicians, is developing its own 300 Mbps data tier.
Other than saying that it is making the necessary arrangements to deliver this speed, it has not revealed what the price of such an offer would cost.
Of course, if these rumors prove to be true, the obvious drive for Charter is to stay on par with Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS, which have recently both unveiled their own 300 Mbps tiers.
Verizon is offering its asymmetrical Quantum 300/65 data tier, which doubles the speeds of its former 150/35 Mbps offering, for $205 a month. At the same time, it has also increased the speeds on three of its current levels: 25/25 will increase to 50/25; 35/35 will climb to 75/35, and 50/20 will jump to 150/65.
Not to be outdone, Comcast later in July unveiled a 305 Mbps tier targeting existing Verizon FiOS markets.
While it's hard to gauge how much of an uptake any of these operators will get for their higher speed tiers, Charter's possible move suggest that the cable operators have to be able to market that they can effectively compete with the telcos with similar offerings.
For more:
- DSL Reports has this article
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