Friday, September 30, 2016

RCN to Launch Gigabit Internet Access in Chicago Market

RCN, a provider of triple-play services to some 377,000 customers, will sell gigabit Internet access services in its Chicago market, including the communities of Skokie and Lincolnwood, using DOCSIS 3.1 technology. Pricing will start at $70 a month.

RCN began life as a supplier of triple-play services primarily to high-rise and other multiple dwelling units in a few Northeast U.S. cities, and now is owned by TPG, a private equity firm.

TPG also acquired the assets of Grande Communications, an overbuilder operating in Texas.

Like privately-held WOW, TPG operates as an overbuilder, competing against both other cable operators and telcos in the consumer and business customer segments. WOW has something more than 700,000 customers.

Though both WOW and TPG have accounts two orders of magnitude behind the top-tier service providers, WOW now ranks about 10th on a list of largest triple-play providers, while TPG ranks 12th.

After a recent wave of mergers, the leader board is vastly changed. Perhaps most surprising, for many observers, is the fact that AT&T now is the biggest supplier of consumer video services.

By way of comparison, AT&T has 26 million video accounts, Comcast has 22.4 million, Charter Communications 18.4 million, Dish Network 13.9 million, Verizon 4.7 million accounts.

The other possible surprise is that an overbuilder (typically a service provider competing against both telco and cable) now is in the top-10 rankings.


Rank
Provider
Total Subscribers
1
26,000,000
2
22,400,000
3
18,421,145
4
13,909,000
5
4,700,000
6
4,540,280
7
3,948,000
8
1,700,000
9
862,000
10
WOW! (f.k.a. WideOpenWest)
702,101
11
451,000
12
377,000
13
359,000
14
311,000
15
246,000
16
236,250
17
234,573
18
213,058
19
Metrocast
164,921
20
164,796
21
152,975
22
140,000
23
130,954
24
117,882
25
68,715
26
41,200
26
32,000

Source: Wikipedia


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