We all know that this country doesn’t have nearly enough competition in the broadband Internet sector, but it’s a little sad to watch what happens when one of the nation’s cable giants faces some unexpected competition. Google Fiber’s gigabit connections may soon grace the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Oh, and back in July, Cox Communications gave their customers with faster broadband plans a completely coincidental 100% speed increase.

“Cox should definitely be praised for the very obviously selfless, and not at all prompted by Google Fiber coming to Phoenix move,” tipster Wyvrex wrote to us, clearly trying to keep a straight face as he typed. Phoenix was announced as a possible site for Google Fiber expansion back in February, and Cox announced plans to offer its own gigabit connections to consumers in Phoenix later this year, rolling them out nationwide by 2017. Well, nationwide to all areas that have franchise agreements with Cox, America’s third-largest cable and broadband provider.

It’s only higher-tier plans that get the speed boost: customers who previously had 25 Mbps connection now have 50, and customers with 50 Mpbs connections now have 100.

Cox doubling Internet speeds on two biggest plans [AZFamily]