This week, Windstream Communications ramped up its 12 Mbps broadband tier to some of the customers in its 16-state footprint.

Little Rock, Ark.-based Windstream – which was formed from the spin-off of Alltel's landline business and a merger with Valor Telecom – currently has the 12 Mbps service available in 25 percent of its footprint, mostly in the larger metropolitan areas that the company serves.

“We launched our ADSL2-plus service on Monday, and we’ll follow it up with a pretty aggressive marketing plan,” said Windstream spokesman David Avery. “Most of the customer equipment was already provisioned. Our network group performed an upgrade to backhaul the traffic in order to be able to handle the appropriate amount of traffic.”

The faster tier is available to consumers for $19.99 per month when it is paired up with either Windstream’s voice or digital TV services.

Earlier this month, Windstream started offering customers 2Wire’s home residential gateway boxes for home networking, instead of a previous offering that used a separate modem and Linksys router.

Windstream primarily competes with cable operators in its 16-state footprint. The company serves rural areas, as well as large metropolitan cities such as Broken Arrow, Okla.; Lincoln, Neb.; Lexington, Ky; and areas around Charlotte, N.C.

Currently, Windstream’s 3 Mbps service is available in 100 percent of the areas where the operator offers broadband services; the 6 Mbps service is available in 50 percent, and the 12 Mbps in 25 percent.

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