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Comcast To Begin Offering Fastest Internet In The Country To Jacksonville

Ray Hollister
/
WJCT News

Jacksonville residents will be able to purchase extremely fast Internet service, starting next month. A handful of Florida cities are among the nation’s first where Comcast is bringing fiber-optic Internet to people’s homes.

The new Internet service called Gigabit Pro is faster than anything currently available in Florida. That means customers could download the equivalent of a feature-length film in about 15 seconds versus the average 25 minutes it takes a current Comcast customer to download the same file.

A Comcast rep declined to give pricing on the service, which launches next month. She did say customers would be responsible for installation fees so Comcast can dig in yards and install the fiber-optic cables. And to get this new service, customers must live within a third of a mile of existing Comcast fiber cables.

A much slower service Comcast offers, called Extreme 505, runs about $400 a month. Extreme 505 runs at more than 10 times faster than most customers have in the state of Florida but only a quarter of the speed of Gigabit Pro.

Jessica Palombo supervises local news gathering and production, podcasts and web editorial content for WJCT News, ADAPT and Jacksonville Today. She is an award-winning writer and journalist with bylines including NPR, Experience Magazine, and The Gainesville Sun. She has a master’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism from Syracuse University and is an alumna of the University of Florida. A nearly lifelong resident of Jacksonville, she considers herself lucky to be raising her own children in her hometown. Follow Jessica Palombo on Twitter: @JaxJessicaP