Swedish cableco Com Hem has branched out in technology terms this week by announcing the commercial launch of 1Gbps home broadband services based on direct fibre/LAN connections in a few selected locations covered by its own fledgling fibre/LAN network as well as in several open access fibre/LAN city networks where Com Hem operates as a service provider, extending its reach beyond its cable footprint. Availability of the 1Gbps direct fibre service will ‘increase gradually’, according to Com Hem’s press release, which also revealed that the cableco has expanded the coverage of its previous fastest broadband service, the 500Mbps/50Mbps (download/upload) HFC cable DOCSIS 3.0-based package launched in August 2013, which now covers around 1.4 million households, up from around one million homes passed at launch.
Com Hem adds that while its 1Gbps service will not be a mass market product in the near term, it sees existing demand from certain customers while it also recognises the importance of developing its infrastructure to cope with faster speeds that will be standard in the future. For several years, Com Hem’s 100Mbps HFC-based service has been its best selling broadband packages, while it notes that sales of both 250Mbps and 500Mbps services are steadily increasing.