Comcast Announces Additional 2 Gigabit Deployments

Comcast today announced that the cable giant will be expanding its two gigabit fiber to the home service to another three million potential homes by the end of July. According to the Comcast announcement, Comcast plans to offer "Gigabit Pro" service to three million California customers in June. Specifically, Comcast says they'll be targeting the Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton and Visalia metro areas.

The announcement comes on the heels of Comcast's earlier announcement to offer two gigabit service to 1.5 million customers in parts of Atlanta, with the goal of reaching 18 million potential customers by the end of the year.

While Comcast tells me this 18 million user target is homes served, the target still seems extremely ambitious. Google Fiber and Verizon FiOS installs cost those companies around $500-$900 per install, and Comcast's current entire capex budget is no larger than $7 billion per year. Hitting eighteen million homes with two gigabit fiber to the home without notably bumping this budget (and angering investors) -- all in just eight months -- would be an impressive feat.

There's still no word on pricing for the new two gigabit tier. Comcast's current top speed offering is a 505 Mbps hybrid coax/fiber offering that runs users $400 a month, not including a $1,000 early termination fee, a $250 activation fee and a $250 installation fee.

If that's outside of your price comfort zone, Comcast today also announced they plan to launch Extreme 250, a new 250 Mbps Internet speed tier for California customers. In addition, Comcast says they'll be boosting its Performance tier from 50 Mbps to 75 Mbps and its Blast tier from 105 Mbps to 150 Mbps, at no additional cost to customers.

The double gigabit announcement is certainly timed in part to help nudge forward the company's $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable, but if today's rumors of a DOJ rejection of the deal are true , Comcast may ultimately find itself disappointed.