Add Cable One to the growing list of US cable operators offering gigabit broadband speeds to virtually all the homes passed in its traditional service areas. But, in typical Cable One fashion, the MSO is going about that task in its own unique way.

Similar to such other major MSOs as Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), Mediacom Communications Corp. and WideOpenWest Holdings LLC (WOW) , Cable One Inc. announced earlier this week that it now offers gigabit service to 95% of the nearly 1.7 million homes passed in its legacy footprint. These numbers don't take in the nearly 450,000 homes passed that Cable One picked up earlier this year from its $735 million acquisition of NewWave Communications. (See Cable One Bids $735M for NewWave and Is Cable One Beefing Up for Slaughter?)

As a result, Cable One said it is now promoting its GigaOne product -- which offers downstream speeds of 1 Gbit/s and upstream speeds of 50 Mbit/s to residential customers for $175 a month -- to more than 1.5 million homes passed in 200 mainly smaller markets across the US. Plans call for boosting its coverage to 99% of homes passed by the end of March and all homes passed by the end of the year.

Unlike its three fellow MSOs, though, Cable One is not going gig across its footprint by offering DOCSIS 3.1 service, which is the newest, multi-gig version of the cable industry's DOCSIS standard. Instead, the cableco is relying on the older DOCSIS 3.0 standard, which can support downstream speeds up to about 1.2 Gbit/s through bonding of up to 32 6-MHz channels. For more on this story, please turn to our sister site, Broadband World news. (See Cable One Goes Gaga Over Gig .)

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading