Grande Unfazed in Crowded Gigabit Market
Will Austin become ground zero of the Gigabit network wars?
“In all honesty, Google was a bit of a wakeup call for us,” says Matt Rohre, Senior Vice President of Operations and General Manager for Grande Communications , referring to Google Fiber Inc. ‘s targeting of the Austin region for a gigabit network buildout. “We had the position as the fastest network in town. When someone comes in and threatens that, you have to make a decision.”
Grande’s decision was to evolve its network faster than it had originally planned, to become the first gigabit service provider in the region by making 1Gbit/s service available to about 20% of its market. Meanwhile, Austin has become a hotbed of sorts in the Gigabit Cities race, with Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) targeting the area in addition to Google. (See AT&T Grows Gigabit Goals and TWC Speeds Along With Speed Hikes.)
In the rapidly developing Gigabit Cities sector, Austin is likely to be closely watched to see if the promise of gigabit networks can actually support multiple competitive operators over the long term.