Cox speed boost leaves some members behind

A few pockets of broadband customers missed out on Cox Communications' recent free upgrade in service, the cable provider confirmed on Friday.

Instead, the estimated 200,000 subscribers in Las Vegas, Nev.; Gainesville, Fla.; Lafayette, La.; and in dozens of other small markets will have to wait until possibly Dec. 31 for the upgrade. On Tuesday, Cox announced it was increasing promised download speeds to 4 megabits per second and doubling upstream bandwidth to 512 kilobits per second.

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The customers who aren't seeing the upgrade are in markets served by cable companies bought by Cox in recent years, said Bobby Amirshahi, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based cable giant. Each of the operations has a very different network architecture from Cox's own. "We still haven't put in the necessary pieces to make the service uniform for all of our customers," Amirshahi said.

It's an argument some missing out on the speed boost are turning to chat rooms to discuss. "It's ALL OR NOTHING!!!" one person looking to switch providers if not upgraded wrote in a forum.

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"We completely and utterly empathize with what are our most avid and loyal high customers," Amirshahi said. "We know they are anxious for their upgrades."

On Tuesday, Cox also boosted the speed of its "premier" $54.95 a month broadband service to 5mbps. In addition, the "value" tier now offers 256kbps both upstream and downstream, increased from 128kbps, for $24.95 a month. Value customers do not have to subscribe to video or phone service to get the broadband access.