Aiming to keep its broadband customers happy without lowering prices, Comcast Corp. is introducing a technology that temporarily doubles users’ download speeds.
New England is the first region in the country where Comcast customers can try out the technology, called PowerBoost, which went live yesterday [1st June]. It is Comcast’s fourth such upgrade in three years and the latest instance of a broadband provider offering faster download speeds as an incentive to customers in an increasingly competitive market.
I’ve been following discussions on this around the country as Comcast begins their roll-out. They promise to have the whole country online by year-end.
I’d get a 12mbps max instead of my current 6mbps — but, only when downloading a big file. Folks on the next tier would have a 24mbps max available.
PowerBoost is built into the data network that Comcast uses to connect its subscribers to the Web. That network is shared by many people in a given area and since all of them aren’t usually online at once, the unused bandwidth can be utilized to bolster connection speeds for others.
Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts has said he would rather battle his competitors with more features than with lower prices. In a speech in Waltham in October , he said Comcast’s download speeds could be raised to as much as 100 megabits per second without upgrading to its underlying network.
Wouldn’t you think the sleazy bastids would care about inspiring some loyalty by offering us the system’s capabilities — rather than waiting till they’re pushed by a competitor showing up in that portion of the market where there actually is competition?
Comcast can go jump in a lake as far as I’m concerned.
Last week, amid all the jibber-jabber about AT&T and it’s privacy statement and such, I was thinking of switching from SBC (now AT&T again) DSL to Comcast.
Ok, first, I don’t own a TV. I don’t watch it, I don’t use it, I don’t need it. Ok, so I get on the phone with this person who is going to set me up and I tell her I want the extra high speed of 8mbps that costs an extra 10 bucks a month. Granted, it will be about $56 a month for this 8mbps, but since I’m paying around 37ish for my 3mbps DSL now, I’m getting a major upgrade in speed so I figured the extra money was worth it.
Well, turns out that to get the 8mbps I also have to subscribe to cable TV too, and the lowest cost package that they offer was like $16 bucks. Otherwise it would be only 4mbps access in my area for $46 a month! So for almost $10 more than what I’m paying now, I get 1mbps more. Else I would have to pay over $80 bucks and have services I won’t even use!
Blow me Comcast.
Sounds like Ramdoubler for the Internet to me.
http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks
http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp
Oh and:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1269/
I TOTALLY agree with #1, as I am in the same boat. I’m not anti-TV, but I don’t own one.
I will say, I just moved and I wanted cable over DSL for many reasons, and I am getting full blown service for $20 a month for 6 months. During the “special price” period, I get full service. I have learned to argue with Comcast every 6 months.
Now, if I do buy a TV in the next 6 months, I won’t care anymore. I’ll just take the cheapest TV option as 99% of my TV (I used to own a TV, of course) viewing is DVD playback.
Here’s the skinny. Regular price for virtually all cable Internet service averages $45 a month. Basic TV is about $15. Comcast offers a regular price of $60 but offers $15 discount if you get basic cable. Thus, they are actually gouging the 4% of Americans who don’t own a TV.
Why? Because in most areas, they do not employee the technology that will seperate TV and data frequencies, so they force you to buy it since they can’t prevent you from not using it.
Comcast also limits Usenet access to 2GB per month across all 7 accounts. I use 2GB over lunch. Other services offer unlimited, or a 25GB limit per account. What can I do… They are a monopoly.
Oh… They say they are not a monopoly because I can choose DSL or dial up. If Ford made the only pick-up truck, would they not be a monopoly because I could buy a VW Beetle or a Toyota Corrola?
So yeah… I guess Comcast can blow me too, but I’m using them because I really don’t have another choice.
Actually, ditto, for OFTLO. Same choices here in northern NM. Comcast, Qwest or dial-up. There are a few other ISP’s piggybacking on Qwest’s DSL copper.
I wish someone would force the same leasing option on glass as copper. I’d love to have someone competitive clamber in on Comcast’ glass. A misnomer, anyway, since it was installed 2 monopolies ago.
But, it’s new enough and capable enough to run that 100mbps the Comcast honcho brags about.
“increasingly competitive market”? Really? I can only get two broadband services here; cable or dsl, from one company. It isn’t like the dial up days where all you needed was a server house.
Don’t you just love the free market spirit? All these happy tales from satisfied consumers are proof positive that capitalism is the best system in the world.
The CATV industry can hardly be described as capitalism. It is by law that a community may only contract with one CATV provider under most circumstances. The government, as in most cases, is again preventing a free-market from happening. Stifle any chance of competition and the mediocre stay in place.
Comcast’s download speeds could be raised to as much as 100 megabits per second without upgrading to its underlying network.
Man, what does that mean Verizon’s FiOS is capable of???
This also accounts for why they want tiered service – so they can use this unadvertised bandwidth to add their own paid services without dogging their networks [any more than they already are].
This is like the history of CDR burners, modems & DVD-R burners – start slow, and release faster speeds as sales plateau…
I’m on the the gold tier 8,000/768 in PA. The boost gives me 20,000/768 for 10 seconds, then back to 8,000/768. For 99 out of 100 users this will be of no help at all. It will help Comcast with their network, to some degree.
I had Optimum Online which provides 10Mbps basic for $45 (non-cable customer). Now I have Optimum Boost which gives me 30Mbps for $60.
Comcast just plain sucks.
It’s time to take the internet away from the RBOCS and Cable companies and all of the other wanabee in your wallets… Don’t you think? Then let them masturbate all over themselves trying to provide high value whatever! But let’s ask that a new real internet be built that goes the last mile… Fibre to the people! I’ll pay real money for real bandwidth. And I’ll be so happy to take my wife’s pruning shears to the rest of the cables wires coming into my house.
8^)
From what I understand. Cable is already capable of much faster speeds, but it’s throttled down due to how the cable company programs the modem when it’s powered up. They do this so that the full bandwidth won’t be overloaded in a given neighborhood.
They call this a “cap.” And there’s have been people who were able to reprogram their cable modems to raise or remove the “cap” for faster download speeds.
So technically cable modems have been able to do extremely high speeds since they have been introduced, that they are really upgrading is their bandwidth to each neighbourhood, and then reprogramming our cable modems to higher download speeds.
Now if they simply raised my UPLOAD speed, I’d be extremely happy.
We aren’t #1 because we have legacy infrastructure that we KEEP trying to use, and we tend to be stubborn about it and we keep using it.
Where as other countries lie Korea were not cluttered with old copper lines strung around everywhere for the past 65 years, so they went straight to fiber in the late 90s when the Internet started to be come a “need” rather than a hobby.
Actually, when Cable started up, folks were already making the switch to glass. And not just cable folk; but, some folks putting in buried phone lines. The problem has always been Telcos who had reached an enormous level of profit from copper that was paid for decades ago — and the same old farts running the Telcos who couldn’t see fix feet down the road.
BTW, there are Telcos the other side of the pond offering DSL 8-24mbps over copper.
15,
THEY DONT WANT TO upgrade,
AND
They DONT WANT TO UPGRADE TO THE BEST, upgradable OPTIONS.
AND
they dont want to PAY FOR IT, they want US to pay for it.
Hmmm, HOw to do this?? RAISe prices, Moan and groan at the Gov, and GET SOMEONE ELSE to pay for it.
PTLD, AT the time of the ISP boom.
Was set up for a 6% usage rate on Copper. On the idea that 6% of all access only needed 6% coverage to handle ALL that was going on.
When the ISP boom hit, this went to 80%. Took them 2 years to re-route- and reconnect, and ADD new lines and FIBER in town. That was about 95.
NOw think a moment, 100% means that EVERYONE has access tot here phone 24/7… AND we, the corps and the citizans were PAYINg for 6% coverage.
the Telco’s would rather you pay for 40 year OLD tech, then to FIX things that cost THEM MONEY…Not quite, but it would DROP the wages of those on top. BECAUSE they have to pay ALOT of people to install NEW lines. they pulled employees from Accross the nation to come help. Know how long it takes to get an INSTALLER to a residential home?? 2-4 weeks… they dont run a full employee base.
THEY make money HAND over fist.