Comcast beats Fort Collins to the punch with gigabit internet service Comcast offers faster internet service in Fort Collins as the city weighs building its own network

Kevin Duggan | The Coloradoan

Show Caption Hide Caption Comcast's new digs Cable and internet provider ramps up in Fort Collins

Comcast beat Fort Collins to the punch for providing a long-sought benchmark in high-speed internet service.

The communications and entertainment giant on Wednesday made 1 gigabit-per-second speed available in every community it serves in Colorado.

The service will use wiring commonly found in homes to handle high-speed downloads, company officials told the Coloradoan. Residential customers will need to change out modems and routers to access the service.

The service comes to Fort Collins as city officials continue considering building a fiber-optic network and offering internet service as a municipal utility.

Comcast believes its facilities would deliver the level of service city officials and residents want, said Rich Jennings, senior vice president of Comcast’s Rocky Mountain region.

“We would hope that if the service is available to all the residents in the city of Fort Collins that there wouldn’t be a need for the municipality to do its own offering,” he said. “But certainly if the city finds there is a need and they want to do that, we’ll compete with the city in that space.”

CenturyLink officials also have plans to expand facilities and access to high-speed internet around Larimer County.

City Manager Darin Atteberry said the Comcast launch was expected. As the city goes through the process of studying ways to provide fast, reliable internet services communitywide, it will look at possibilities for forming partnerships with private companies.

“Not only would we be considering incumbents, but any other firm that is operating in this space and is interested in partnering with us looking long-term into the future,” he said.

Key issues from the city’s perspective are accessibility and affordability, Atteberry said.

The retail price of Comcast’s 1 gbps service with no contract would be $159.95 per month. A promotional price of $109.99 per month with a one-year agreement will be offered in Fort Collins and Larimer County.

Fort Collins officials have targeted a price of $70 per month for 1 gbps service and $40 per month for 50 mbps service. Longmont, which is building its own system, charges $50 for 1 gbps service for "legacy" customers who sign up in advance.

The system envisioned by city officials would provide access to high-speed internet service for every home and businesses in Fort Collins and its growth management area, which is land expected to be eventually annexed into the city.

Fort Collins staff members are working on details of a business plan for a “retail” service model that would have the city build and operate the system as a utility.

Voters would have to approve amending the charter of the Light and Power utility to permit the service. A measure might appear on the November ballot.

City officials expect to issue in the coming weeks a request of proposals from private companies interested in working with Fort Collins as partners.

Atteberry said to keep pace with technological advances, the city would like to run fiber optics, which transit data using light, to every premise in Fort Collins.

Systems operated by Comcast, CenturyLink other companies use a combination of fiber optics, coaxial cable and copper wiring.

“To future-proof your community, you really need to involve fiber,” Atteberry said.

Mike Spaulding, head of engineering for Comcast’s Rocky Mountain region, said the company’s DOCSIS 3.1 system is capable of multi-gigabit speeds.

Comcast’s system uses fiber optics as the backbone of its system, he said. The final mile to most premises is covered by coaxial cable.

“This specification, I think, is well prepared and well positioned to future-proof consumer demand in the marketplace over an existing (coaxial) network,” Spaulding said.

City officials estimate that building a fiber optic network would cost $120 million to $150 million and take three to five years.

Kevin Duggan is a Coloradoan senior reporter covering local government. Follow him on Twitter, @coloradoan_dugg, and on Facebook at Coloradoan Kevin Duggan.