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RCN and four other regional ISPs morph into Astound Broadband

Eight of the top 10 markets in the US are covered under this rebranding of the country's sixth-largest broadband provider.

Trey Paul Senior Editor
Trey Paul is a CNET senior editor covering broadband. His 20+ years of experience as a writer and editor include time at CNET's sister site, Allconnect, and working with clients like Yahoo!, Google, The New York Times and Choice Hotels. An avid movie fan, Trey's career also includes being a film and TV critic while pursuing a degree in New York.
Expertise Home internet and broadband, including plans, providers, internet speeds and connection types. Movies and film studies. Credentials
  • Master's degree in Cinema Studies from NYU and interviews with Conan O'Brien, Stan Lee and some of his biggest Star Trek childhood idols
Trey Paul
2 min read
Image of Astound Broadband van

You can expect to see more of an Astound Broadband presence in some of the top markets in the country.

Astound Broadband

Five regional internet service providers will on Wednesday be unified under the new name Astound Broadband. Digital West, EnTouch, Grande, RCN and Wave when combined will boast coverage in eight of the top 10 metro areas across the country and 10 different states.

"This is probably the worst-kept secret in the industry," Jim Holanda, CEO of Astound Broadband, told CNET about the launch. "Given the fact that most of our press releases referred to us as Astound Broadband over the last year and half, I think people have seen it coming. But we're excited to get it formalized and unite all our brands under this aspirational umbrella."

Astound Broadband covers some of the biggest cities in the US, including Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; New York; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington. 

Locating local internet providers

While Astound Broadband will be leading the charge, Holanda added that the regional brands will still be included in this evolution of the company. For example, markets in the northeastern US will fall under Astound Broadband powered by RCN, and so forth.

"Our brands are powerful, with a lot of good reputation behind them," Holanda said. "We don't want to lose that as a function of this change." 

Locating local internet providers

In 2021, Astound purchased Harris Broadband, a fiber-to-the-home provider in central Texas, as well as three markets from WideOpenWest -- Chicago; Evansville, Indiana; and Anne Arundel County, Maryland -- to add to its portfolio. 

While those new markets won't be fully incorporated into Astound Broadband until sometime in mid-2022 (probably June or July, is Holanda's guess), their inclusion brings Astound up to approximately 1.2 million residential and business internet subscribers with around 15% fiber-to-the-home coverage in total. 

Overall, Astound Broadband is available in parts of California, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington state. It also covers Washington, DC.