Comcast announced Tuesday it will offer 100 Mbps broadband service to businesses in the Twin Cities as the company increases speeds on its network as a result of network upgrades.
The company is offering the service over its newly upgraded Docsis 3.0 network. The Minneapolis-Saint Paul region was selected as the first area to get the service because it is one of the most mature Docsis 3.0 deployments that Comcast currently serves.
Comcast hasn't provided a schedule for when the service will be expanded. But a spokesman said the company will eventually introduce it in all its markets that have been upgraded to Docsis 3.0. These markets include Boston and parts of Southern New Hampshire, parts of Hartford, Philadelphia and surrounding areas, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, large parts of New Jersey, parts of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Chattanooga, Portland, Seattle, City of San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Comcast's goal is to reach 80 percent of its national footprint this year with the faster Docsis 3.0 technology. Currently, it covers about 65 percent of its footprint. By the end of the year, if Comcast reaches it goal, its faster broadband service will be available in more than 40 million homes and businesses.
Comcast already offers 50 Mbps service to businesses and residential customers in these markets today. But now the company is stepping up its efforts with the 100 Mbps service.
Comcast's rival Verizon Communications doesn't yet offer 100 Mbps service for any of its customers. The fastest service available from the company's all-fiber Fios network is 50 Mbps. Verizon's all fiber network is capable of delivering 100 Mbps speeds, but the company says it hasn't seen a big demand for it from either residential customers or business customers.
"We offer 50 Mbps in every market we serve," said Bobbi Henson, a spokeswoman for Verizon. "We haven't seen a tremendous amount of demand for 100Mbps service."
But Comcast's Kevin O'Toole says there is demand from small businesses. He said that businesses, such as those in healthcare or real estate, which send large files are in the most need of more bandwidth. What's more, Comcast offers several other services along with the broadband service to make the service more valuable to business customers.
For $369.95 per month these businesses get access to Microsoft services, such as Microsoft Exchange email, which provides shared corporate calendar and address functionality, and Microsoft Sharepoint, which allows businesses to have their own intranet. Comcast also will offer these 100 Mbps customers hardware firewall protection and 25 seats of McAfee security. It also offers free web hosting and domain support.
Comcast isn't competing against Verizon's Fios service with this 100 Mbps service. It is actually competing with Verizon's and other phone companies' T1 data services. This is the kind of service that most larger businesses subscribe to from a telephone provider. Not only are T1 services expensive, in some places costing close to $1,000 a month, but T1 lines are also slow, only providing downloads of 1.5 Mbps.
Comcast believes that small businesses with fewer than 20 employees is an underserved market. And in 2006 it started its business service unit. The strategy of going after these small businesses has paid off. And iIn the second quarter of 2009, the company reported that the business services unit grew revenue by 51 percent compared to the second quarter of 2008.
This is an underserved market that really needs the speed of 100 Mbps service," O'Toole said. "Plus we offer them a great value when you look at the entire package."
Microsoft and Verizon may need to learn a thing or two about customer service from IBM's Informix, according to a report released Wednesday by market researcher VendorRate.
Among IT professionals questioned, Microsoft's customer satisfaction ratings for the second quarter dropped in three key areas.
Out of a score of 100, Microsoft's server and infrastructure software rated 55, a 17 percent decline from the first quarter; its operating systems scored 67, down 9.5 percent; and its applications came in at 64, an 18 percent dip.
"Microsoft was cruising along with satisfactory scores in earlier reports, but it simply fell off a cliff in this quarter," Rick Schaefer, CEO of VendorRate, said in a statement.
Of all vendors measured, Verizon Communications came in lowest as an overall company for customer satisfaction, scoring 61 out of 100. Sprint Nextel and AT&T Wireless also came in near the bottom, at 64 and 67 points, respectively--a reflection of the telecom industry's poor showing overall.
(Credit:
VendorRate)
"Once again the telecom sector sinks to the bottom of all lists," Schaefer said. "Either telecom vendors don't get it, or they don't seem to care."
However, not all of telecom is broken. Telecom equipment maker ShoreTel made it into the No. 2 slot of vendors with a rating of 92.
IBM's Informix scored at the top of the list with a rating of 96. Formed when IBM bought the Informix technology in 2001, it specializes in online transaction processing, an automated system used by banks, airlines, and other industries to interact with customers.
(Credit:
VendorRate)
"IBM Informix was among the top rated vendors for the fourth straight quarter," noted Schaefer, "and this is the first time that ShoreTel made it into the top rankings."
Still, not everything that IBM touches turns to gold. IBM Global Services ranked near the bottom of consultants with a rating of 66.
VendorRate gathers ratings and reviews from IT and business professionals. For its second-quarter report, the company surveyed more than 1,500 IT professionals at trade shows, conferences, its own Web site, and "virtual events."
Those questioned by VendorRate ranked nearly 350 companies on 10 criteria, including customer service, reliability, integrity, budget, and effectiveness for a cumulative score of 100. The ratings were collected from April 1 through June 30.
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A crucial undersea fiber-optic cable that will provide more Internet capacity between the U.S. and China was completed Monday, according to news reports.
Six of the world's largest phone companies have finished building an 18,000-kilometer "Trans-Pacific Express" cable that will link the U.S., China, South Korea, and Taiwan, according to the Dow Jones news service.
The high-speed link will provide more capacity for the region, which is currently served by a single low-capacity cable that provides connectivity between mainland China and the U.S. Most Web traffic between the U.S. and China goes through Hong Kong or Japan. These routes can often cause transmission delays.
The project, which cost about $500 million, was prompted when an earthquake off Taiwan's coast in December 2006 severed several undersea data cables, which resulted in disrupted communications throughout much of Asia. The world's largest phone companies decided that something had to be done to provide more infrastructure to the region.
U.S. phone giant Verizon Communications joined forces with Korean phone company KT and Taiwanese Chunghwa Telecom, as well as with three Chinese phone companies, China Telecom, China Netcom Group, and China Unicom. The cost of the project was divided evenly among the six partners, according to KT.
AT&T and Japan's NTT Communications have also joined the group. They plan to invest more in the project to extend the cable to Japan.
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