RCN Business Services, a division of RCN Corp., said today that it’s rolling out DOCSIS 3.0-enabled services in parts of its footprint to the small- and medium-size business market.
RCN Business Services said it plans to launch the faster speeds, which come in three tiers, in Manhattan and parts of Boston – where it can leverage its existing fiber and coaxial deployments. Additional areas served by RCN in eastern Pennsylvania will also see the rollout of the new tiers, but RCN didn’t provide a time frame.
RCN competes against Comcast in the Boston area and Time Warner Cable in Manhattan.
In September, Time Warner Cable launched its DOCSIS 3.0 service in parts of Manhattan, which also included offerings for businesses.
Comcast rolled out DOCSIS 3.0-enabled wideband to small- and medium-size businesses in the Boston area in April. In July, Comcast launched residential and business DOCSIS 3.0 tiers in its hometown of Philadelphia, along with other areas in the state.
RCN is using Cisco’s uBR10012 cable modem termination systems (CMTSs) and Cisco’s DPC300 channel-bonded cable modems to power its DOCSIS 3.0 tiers. The new services will offer peak data rates of 20 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream, 40 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream and 60 Mbps downstream/10 Mbps upstream. RCN said pricing would allow for one- to two-year commitments ranging from $59.99 to $199.99.
“An offering that includes faster upstream and downstream speeds will further allow us to develop solutions that meet the needs of our business customers. We anticipate that the midpoint 40/5 Mbps data package will provide the best value for many SMBs,” explained RCN Business Services’ vice president and general manager, Mary Jane Horne. “We engage closely with our clients, who tell us over and over about the tremendous pressures they face to find new ways to increase productivity and drive efficiency. Our rollout of DOCSIS 3.0 will make it easier for us to address this demand.”
RCN said its SMB tiers were designed to support the demands of multiple users and applications such as hosted VoIP, video conferencing, streaming video and secure VPN.
