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	AT&T	26,000,000
2	Comcast Cable	22,400,000
3	Charter Communications	18,421,145
4	Dish Network	13,909,000
5	Verizon	4,700,000
6	Cox Communications	4,540,280
7	Altice USA	3,948,000
8	Frontier Communications	1,700,000
9	Mediacom	862,000
10	WOW! (f.k.a. WideOpenWest)	702,101
11	Cable One	451,000
12	TPG	377,000
13	Windstream	359,000
14	CenturyLink	311,000
15	Atlantic Broadband Group, LLC	246,000
16	Midcontinent Communications	236,250
17	Armstrong Cable Services	234,573
18	Service Electric Cable TV Incorporated	213,058
19	Metrocast	164,921
20	Blue Ridge Communications	164,796
21	WaveDivision Holdings, LLC	152,975
22	General Communications	140,000
23	Buckeye Broadband	130,954
24	Consolidated Communications	117,882
25	Google Fiber	68,715
26	TDS Telecom	41,200
26	Hawaiian Telcom	32,000

Source: Wikipedia

source: PCmag