Not sure if others saw this yet, it just got released from what I understand.

Now I know most in the City of Lafayette aren’t going to care much
about this due to LUS fiber slowly becoming available. But some others
around the Lafayette area outside of LUS planned rollout might.

My understanding is that the first plan is $89 a month for 50down/5up.
 I know I know.. 5up, lets just say its better than what Cox has been
offering so thats a good start.  :-)   There is also a $99 charge I
believe for the cable modem, I think you have to buy it outright from
Cox.  The modem in question is a Cisco DPC3000.

I think it is now ok to share that I have been testing it for about a
month now and so far so good.  Consistently get the speeds stated.

I know this isn’t for everyone, and I don’t want to get into the
arguments of what service is better and blah blah.  However, I should
point out if you look at the rest of the cable industry that has
rolled out DOCSIS 3 you will find that the prices are WAY higher than
the $89 that they are charging here in Lafayette.

To me this is a win for the Lafayette area.  And it sort of falls
right into line with what the fiber folk wanted in some ways which was
to push the incumbents to do and offer more to the area.  So I would
think even they should be somewhat happy with this in a way.

Should be particularly good for those ‘work at home’ folk who often
have the service paid for buy the company.  The better upload is
significant when compared to any of the current Cox offerings.

Here is the official press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2009

COX CONTACTS:
Patricia Parks – Cell: (337) 254-0341 – patricia.parks@cox.com
Ann Ruble – Cell: (225) 317-1807 – ann.ruble@cox.com

GREATER LOUISIANA IS FIRST NATIONAL MARKET TO LAUNCH COX’S ULTIMATE PACKAGE

Cox’s Lafayette Parish residential customers first in Cox’s national
footprint to receive speeds up to 50 Mbps through DOCSIS ® 3.0
Technology

Cox Business customers in Lafayette Parish also see first launch of
Cox Business Internet Ultra tier

LAFAYETTE / BATON ROUGE – Cox Communications today announced that it’s
launching the Ultimate Cox High Speed Internet Package in Lafayette
Parish, Louisiana including the cities of Broussard, Carencro, Duson,
Lafayette, Scott and Youngsville. This is the first market to launch
nationally for Cox. Powered by the strength of the cable industry’s
DOCSIS 3.0 technology, Ultimate Internet offers customers some of the
fastest broadband speeds in the marketplace, with downloads up to 50
Mbps and uploads up to 5 Mbps.

“We’re proud to be the first market where Cox is offering the new
technology of DOCSIS 3.0 to our customers,” stated Jacqui Vines,
senior vice president and regional manager for Cox Greater Louisiana.
“Cox has invested over $500 million regionally in our network
operations to ensure we continue to deliver on our commitment to
meeting customer needs. Our investments – and the talents of our
technical team – positioned us for this first in the nation launch.”

DOCSIS 3.0 is a cable-exclusive technology that allows providers to
combine Internet channels in a new way to offer even faster speeds and
more robust features. While Cox’s Ultimate Internet Package is
designed with the high-end computer user in mind, Cox continues to
offer several other levels of Internet service, for everyone from the
casual e-mail user to the avid music fan who enjoys downloading the
latest hits.

“We know customers are turning to the Internet for more
bandwidth-intensive purposes, such as watching videos online,
downloading music and gaming,” stated Vines.  “Ultimate Internet helps
these customers get more out of what they’re into by doing all these
things in record time.”

Cox Business Internet Ultra, the commercial package powered by DOCSIS
3.0, is also launching to customers in Lafayette Parish. Cox Business
Internet Ultra is the premium package for business customers and
includes download speeds up to 50 Mbps, upload speeds up to 5 Mbps,
five dynamic or static IP addresses, one hosted domain name, and 10
email boxes. While Cox Business has been offering dedicated speeds up
to 100 Mbps through fiber-to-the-premises construction throughout
Greater Louisiana, the Ultra package is the first time customers will
receive speeds of 50 Mbps through Cox’s existing network.

More information about Cox High Speed Internet is available at
www.cox.com/highspeedinternet.

® DOCSIS is a registered trademark of CableLabs. Used with permission.

###

About Cox Communications
Cox is a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment
company with more than 6 million total residential and commercial
customers. The third-largest cable television company in the United
States, Cox offers an array of advanced digital video, high-speed
Internet and telephony services over its own nationwide IP network.
Cox wholly owns and operates the Travel Channel.

Cox’s regional operations in Acadiana and Baton Rouge employ over
1,200 people with an annual payroll of over $45 million. In this
region, Cox serves 311,000 customers with voice, video and data
products in the 13 parishes of Acadia, Ascension, East Baton Rouge,
East Feliciana, Iberia, Iberville, Lafayette, Livingston, St. James,
St. Martin, St. Mary, Vermilion and West Baton Rouge.  Information
about the products and services offered in the combined Louisiana
markets can be found www.cox.com/greaterlouisiana.