US based Consolidated Communications announced that broadband speeds of 1 Gbps would be available to its residential subscribers in Texas. The service provider delivers its high speed broadband services over its fiber optic networks in the region. The telecom service provider revealed their intention to proceed with their planned expansion of Fiber to the home networks.
Consolidated Communications serves its subscribers in California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Consolidated offered its first 1 Gbps service in the Kansas City, second to Google. Internet giant Google is the first to offer 1 Gbps services in the Kansas market.
Apart from Consolidated Communications, there are 12 more telecom service providers in Texas. They are AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon, Birch, Sage Telecom, CloseCall America, Grande Communications, Windstream, ICBS, Time warner Cable, Charter and Matrix apart from internet service providers such as Google.
Consolidated is in close match with its rival Google in offering 1 Gbps broadband services in Texas. It follows Google Fiber’s pricing playbook and subscribers in Conroe, Katy, and Lufkin Texas will be able to purchase the 1 Gbps service for $69.95 per month. Google Fiber does not charge anything for the construction of networks from subscribers. That is one of the most attractive features of Google Fiber. Consolidated does not follow Google Fiber’s business model in Texas and charges consumers for the construction/installation when signing up for the 1 Gbps service.
Consolidated wants to focus in Katy, Conroe and some parts of Lufkin at first. The operator will extend its 1 Gbps offering to other markets slowly by seeing the progress in the initial markets. In Conroe, which is located in Montgomery County of Texas, there has been an uptick in economic development driven by oil and gas companies. Katy is another area where there are a lot of middle and high income residential developments. Lufkin is a rural town that’s 2 hours north of Houston where Consolidated have been enabling FTTH over existing fiber. By utilizing the existing optical fiber it installed in many new housing developments built between 2007-2010, Consolidated has been able to light new FTTH services in these three communities.
Texas is just one of several markets where Consolidated is making the 1 Gbps service available to customers where it has built out FTTH facilities. Consolidated had completed FTTH trials in California, where it intends to offer 1 Gbps service after Texas. The company finds potential in 1 Gbps business as the penetration rate of 1 Gbps service in US market in general is around 5 percent.
