Cox Communications is planning to deliver gigabit broadband by the end of this year.
Cox CEO Pat Esser announced the move in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the NCTA's Cable Show on Tuesday, according to CNET.
"We're working on our road map now to bring gigabit speeds to customers this year," Esser said. He added that the cable operator will reveal in the next two weeks which markets will be targeted with the service.
Cox offers fiber-to-the-premises for business customers who need 1Gbps or 10Gbps throughput, Ars Technica reported. Esser did not say whether or not the broadband would be a fiber-to-the-home service. However, he said "We have this very robust network, fiber very deep in the network."
He added that it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the long term to build out the gigabit service through Cox's entire residential footprint.
Cox would be competing with Google and AT&T, which currently provide 1Gbps fiber-based networks. Google offers 1 Gbps broadband service over an all-fiber network in Kansas City and Provo, Utah. AT&T has supplied fiber to residential customers in Austin, Texas, and said that it is looking to expand its Gigabit service to 100 cities, CNET reported.
Esser said the recent announcements from competitors have pushed Cox to announce its plans for the service now.
"We're in a marketplace where a lot of people are making some noise," about the speeds, he said. "And people need to know our roadmap."
He also said that it is too much to provide 1Gbps, which is 50 to 100 times faster than the service most customers subscribe to.
"Our customers want more speed," Esser said. "Not necessarily a Gigabit, but they want more speed. That's nothing new. We've been increasing speeds. But we want to be able to address a wide cut of customers."
The company is the third largest U.S. cable operator after Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Ars Technica reported.
Cox has over 6 million residential and business customers.
