RCN on Thursday announced the immediate availability of 1-gigabit-per-second internet speeds to Lehigh Valley residents. The news comes about nine months after RCN rolled out a top internet speed of 330 megabits per second, more than doubling the company’s previous fastest offering of 155 megabits per second.
With download speeds of 1,000 megabits per second, RCN said the 1-gigabit service allows customers to download a two-hour movie in seconds and to seamlessly operate multiple devices at the same time.
“What we’re seeing is increased demand for bandwidth, what we call speed,” said Sanford Ames Jr., senior vice president and general manager of RCN of the Lehigh Valley. “What we’re building now is a network that we expect to be needed in the future.”
That future is expected to include even more internet-connected devices in each home and an increasing array of video content.
A Pew Research Center study released in May estimated 18 percent of American households are “hyper-connected,” meaning they have 10 or more connected devices. Meanwhile, 39 percent of households, the study found, contain at least one streaming media device, such as a Roku, Apple TV or Google Chromecast that customers use to access services such as Netflix and Hulu, along with livestreaming TV options such as Playstation Vue.
It’s gotten to the point where most players across the cable industry now have more internet subscribers than cable subscribers. For example, Comcast Corp., the country’s largest cable provider, had its broadband subscriber count surpass its cable count more than two years ago.
“We’re using the internet for more than just surfing the web and sending emails,” said Jeff Kagan, an Atlanta telecommunications industry analyst. “We’re using the internet to download movies, which are huge files, and to watch live television, which uses enormous amounts of data.”
So as internet demand has increased, so has internet speed, from dial-up in the 1990s to the 1-gigabit service being rolled out in city after city across the country. RCN, which is using the DOCSIS 3.1 platform, has already rolled out the 1-gigabit service to its other markets, including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
“If you’re going to be in the game, you have to keep getting faster,” Kagan said. “It’s just that simple.”
The Lehigh Valley’s other major provider, Service Electric Cable TV, might get faster.
General Manager Jack Capparell said the company offers residential customers speeds up to 330 megabits per second. In addition, he said, Service Electric has been testing the DOCSIS 3.1 platform since January, so the company could roll out faster internet speeds when the Lehigh Valley market demands it.
Now, Capparell said, Service Electric’s most popular internet speeds are 25 megabits per second, recommended for less than three devices, and 50 megabits per second, which is recommended for three to five devices.
As of now, he added, the rate at which people are upgrading from those speeds to 100 megabits per second or 150 megabits per second remains low.
“For the residential customer, 1 gig sounds good,” Capparell said. “But in reality, what do they need and what are they willing to pay for?”
RCN will find how the market responds to its new offering soon. But, according to Ames, what the introduction of the 1-gigabit service really represents is the concept of what he called “the internet of things,” meaning anything with an on/off switch has the potential of using the internet in the future.
With that in mind, he said: “The DOCSIS 3.1 platform will allow us to offer even faster speeds in the future if we need to.”
FULL SPEED AHEAD
A brief summary of the fastest internet speeds offered to Lehigh Valley residents:RCN: 1 gigabit per second, pricing starting at $64.99 a month for 12 months, plus equipment.
Verizon Fios: Fios Gigabit Connection available to some areas, with up to 940-megabits-per-second internet speed. Pricing starts at $69.99 a month.
Service Electric: Pricing for internet speeds of 330 megabits per second and faster is being determined.
©2017 The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
