Kevin Hardy

kmhardy@dmreg.com

Rocco Commisso isn't sure what kind of interest Iowans will have in Mediacom's 1 gigabit broadband service or how fast they'll adopt the new ultra-fast feature.

"We don't know," the Mediacom founder, chairman and CEO said Wednesday. "The message from us, when it comes and when the people want it: We’re ready, and we’re there."

Mediacom announced Wednesday that it has finalized a system-wide upgrade making 1 gigabit internet service available to all its Iowa residential customers, representing a major boost in potential internet speeds across the state.

In addition to making video streaming and high-tech gaming faster, officials say the faster service could open the door for more home-based businesses. Yet officials acknowledge that the technology's real-world uses are still emerging, particularly for residential consumers.

"1 gigabit still in many households is a future technology," said Ed Pardini, Mediacom's senior vice president for operations. "There are no applications right now that can actually use up to 1 gig."

While other internet providers have made headlines adding gigabit service to entire cities, state officials celebrated the breadth of Mediacom's rollout: gigabit service is now available to all customers in the 309 Iowa communities the company serves.

In total, more than 1 million of Iowa's 1.35 million households can access Mediacom's cable and internet services. The New York-based company recently invested $1 billion to ready for the gigabit rollout.

The gigabit service is more than 15 times faster than Mediacom's advertised introductory internet speed of 60 megabits per second.

"Some companies with names like Google, Comcast — you know, little mom-and-pop shops — they talk about lighting up a city: Kansas City; Chattanooga, Tenn.," Pardini quipped. "Today, these leaders are going to turn on an entire state."

But the gigabit service is not available to all Iowans, particularly those in rural areas that have traditionally lacked broadband service. And for those who do have access, gigabit coverage isn't cheap.

The cost of the gig

The company will offer the gigabit service for $139.99 per month, and a slower 500 megabit internet service for $119.99 per month.

But certain bundled promotions will bring the combined cost of the gigabit and cable television below $100 per month, said Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters. For comparison, Mediacom's introductory internet service of 60 megabits per second is listed at $54.99 per month.

Gigabit internet service initially will be offered only as a wired product, meaning users will have to plug in to access it. It should work with wireless routers within the next few months, Peters said.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds celebrated the announcement Wednesday at a Mediacom facility in north Des Moines that houses much of the company's behind-the-scenes broadband and cable television equipment.

The gigabit option comes just weeks after the company announced a hike in prices and internet speeds for all customers.

Mediacom is not the first to offer gigabit internet in Iowa, but it is the largest provider to ever do so.

The municipally owned Cedar Falls Utilities provides gigabit service on its ultra-fast fiber optic network. The utility recently dropped the price of its gigabit residential service to $105 per month, officials said, though most customers elect for speeds of 100 megabits per second.

CenturyLink also offers 1 gigabit speeds for some homes and businesses in select areas. Company spokespeople didn't return calls requesting the cost of that service.

CEO: Rural access 'not my problem'

Although state leaders celebrated Mediacom's milestone, it does not fundamentally alter the map in Iowa of who does and does not have access to reliable broadband.

As in many parts of the country, Iowa's rural residents are far less likely to have access to high-speed internet.

Data from the Federal Communications Commission's 2016 Broadband Progress Report found that 451,188 Iowans in 2016 did not have access to high-quality broadband, defined by the FCC as reaching download speeds of 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of 3 megabits per second.

Only 4 percent of Iowa's urban residents lacked broadband access, compared with 37 percent of rural Iowans.

The governor acknowledged the longstanding gap but said Mediacom's advancement might spur additional development from other providers.

"Mediacom has a big footprint in Iowa. So it's a good start," he told the Register. "And it shows what others can do, too."

Commisso, the CEO, said his company is not responsible for improving rural access.

"That’s not my problem," he said. "There's other cable companies. There’s the telephone companies. I only deal with my territory."

Mediacom cannot financially justify expanding service to the most sparsely populated areas, he said.

"Frankly, you have some markets where you might have a home per square mile. We’re not there," Commisso said. "You can’t spend $100,000 for one customer. There’s no payback."

'You deserve broadband'

Cost is a major hurdle for expanding and adopting broadband.

Telecom companies often find it cost-prohibitive to expand to more remote areas of the state. And even rural customers who technically have access to satellite internet often are priced out of the market.

"They would tell you they don’t have access to broadband," said Robert von Wolffradt, Iowa's chief information officer. "But what they’re really telling you is they do not have affordable coverage."

State leaders have begun to view broadband accessibility as a near necessity because of its inherent uses in education, entertainment and economic development.

Iowa subsidizes internet service providers in Iowa who expand to rural and under-served areas. About a dozen companies took advantage of those financial incentives last year, von Wolffradt said.

"If you're in Iowa, you deserve broadband," he said.

But even when broadband is accessible, rural residents may not always find it relevant or easy to navigate, said Johnathan Hladik, policy director for the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb.

He said governments are attempting to improve accessibility and digital literacy, but that those efforts are lacking.

Instead of pushing private firms to expand, he argues for a model based off the way rural electric cooperatives expanded electricity to outlying areas after private firms plugged in urban areas.

"There's nothing similar in place for broadband now," Hladik said. "I'm not saying it's exactly the same, but it's hard to make an argument that broadband isn’t as important to modern life as electricity was in the '30s or '40s."

David Daack, a community technology adviser with Connect Iowa, a nonprofit working to improve broadband accessibility, said Mediacom's upgrade is still a meaningful move, even if it doesn't bridge the rural-urban divide.

"It is going to change the dynamics for the Mediacom customers in the footprint they serve," Daack said. "Indirectly, it's going to impact others, because other providers are going to see gigabit service and want to match that at some point in time."

But adoption is often just as big a hurdle as accessibility, Daack said. And it's up to customers to now determine the relevancy of gigabit internet.

"I think for their customer base, for those 309 communities, it’s a game-changer to have that available," he said. "Now, whether you take it or you don’t, that’s for you to decide. But it's there."