Cox Communications’ first fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) trial went live at the start of October in south Orange County, Calif.
Cox has installed fiber in the Rancho Mission Viejo development in Orange County, but so far the services and data speeds are similar to what Cox offers over traditional HFC, according to Cox spokesman Todd Smith.
Smith said he wasn’t able to say how many homes Cox had connected with fiber in the Rancho Mission Viejo development, but the first phase, which is called “Sendaro,” is comprised of 1,000 homes. Over the ensuing years, Cox will serve up fiber to all 14,000 homes in the master-planned community that is five miles from the beach and east of San Juan Capistrano.
Smith said via an email to CED that Cox currently doesn’t have any 1 Gbps trials underway. On the commercial services side, Cox has already deployed-fiber based services faster than 1 Gbps, and has served business in Omaha with a 10 Gbps offering for some time. If there’s a demand for a 1 Gbps service in the housing development, it will be somewhat easy for Cox to open up the fiber spigot.
Google has garnered a lot of national attention for its 1 Gbps fiber service that’s in parts of Kansas City, Austin, and Provo, Utah. CenturyLink, which competes against Cox in some areas, has also booted up a 1 Gig fiber pilot in Omaha, Neb.
The entire Ranch Mission Viejo project, which is owned by a company of the same name, is comprised of 23,000 acres that were once part of a ranch that spanned 200,000 acres. The Sendaro development sits on 690 acres.
In addition to triple play services, Cox also plans on offering its home security and home automation services to residents in the development.
