Colorado-based cableco WOW! has announced plans to launch 1Gbps broadband speeds in five US markets by the end of 2016. The rollout will provide Gigabit speeds to thousands of residential and business customers in Huntsville and Auburn, Alabama; Evansville, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan. The new service will be branded ‘Gigtopia’.
In a separate interview with Multichannel News, CEO Steven Cochran noted that those markets represent about 10% of WOW’s footprint, adding that the plan is to expand Gigtopia to additional markets in 2017. The executive confirmed that WOW! will be using DOCSIS 3.1 technology to deliver the service in those initial markets. The operator’s primary network platform for DOCSIS 3.1 will be the Arris E6000 Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), and the cableco is currently evaluating modem vendors.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, WOW! is currently the ninth largest cableco in the US, although it is set to rise in the rankings due to the recent spate of cable-based M&A activity. The cableco presides over service area that covers three million residential, business and wholesale consumers across 20 markets, primarily in the Midwest and Southeast.