Why Comcast and other cable ISPs aren’t selling you gigabit Internet

Gigabit-class broadband is capturing the imagination of Internet users throughout the country. With Google and other companies bringing fiber-based services that deliver a gigabit of data each second to the home, communities are accelerating their push to get the highest speeds. A consumer who really needs 1,000 megabits of bandwidth is probably a rare creature, but excitement over fiber deployments show there is at least some demand for what is a ludicrous speed compared to most home Internet connections. Cable companies haven't been ignoring this consumer demand… but they haven't done anything to satisfy it, either. While DOCSIS 3.1 products may be available next year, the first deployments to home customers aren't expected until at least 2015. A CableLabs presentation says that trends indicate there will be "1Gbps premium offers in 2016 or later."

“Is there anywhere else in the ecosystem where somebody demonstrates something that's really cool and great, and faster and better, and doesn't put it out for more than two years?" said Blair Levin, a former Federal Communications Commission official and current executive director of Gig.U. "Would Apple ever say, 'here's a phone we're thinking about doing, maybe a couple years from now you'll get it. We could do it today but… no, we're not going to do that'?"

Although vendors promise that it's coming (eventually), some observers believe there just hasn't been enough competition to spur a large-scale shift to gigabit cable speeds. Cable vendors have been forced to offer better deals or upgrade their marketing in communities with competition from fiber. But fiber deployments are still limited, and most US consumers have little choice among Internet providers.

(Dec 1)