Speeding is encouraged
For an Internet service provider like Comcast, speed matters… because it matters to our customers. A decade ago, we were offering speeds of 1.5 Mbps. That was considered fast. I remember people asking at the time, “What are your customers going to do with all that speed?” We’ve come a long way since then and have certainly found ways to use the 1.5 Mbps and much more.
New technologies and online trends are driving the need for increasingly faster Internet speeds. We offer a solution to that: DOCSIS 3.0, also known as wideband. With wideband, we are now offering customers 50 Mbps downloads, which is about as fast as anyone is going at this point. This means you can download a typical 1.5 GB standard def movie (or the equivalent of 400 mp3 songs) in about 4 minutes. On a typical DSL connection that would literally take hours.
We have already rolled out wideband to about a dozen major cities and have plans to reach more than 30 million homes and businesses by the end of this year. We started in the Twin cities early last year, but recently announced expansion into the Bay Area. We’re also in the Greater Boston Metropolitan area, the Greater Philadelphia Metro area and New Jersey, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland and Ft. Wayne. We’ll continue to launch additional markets over the next several months.
While that is great news, 50 Mbps is just the beginning of what’s possible with wideband technology. Wideband will bring an entirely new platform to create the innovative tools and applications of the future, much in the same way that broadband spurred the development of many video-rich applications that have become mainstream today. Wideband will also allow significant evolution for application development that will be available to a large number of American homes.
This platform will have the capability to deliver speeds in excess of 100 Mbps and higher in the future. That’s a far cry from the 1.5 Mbps we were offering ten years ago and I think it begs the same question that we heard when we launched broadband, “what are our customers going to do with all that speed?” I’m eager to find out.
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Comments (14)
And I quote: "Our excessive use threshold is a generous 250 GB/month and that has not changed. " Are you serious? The problem is your service has changed, therefore the threshold NEEDS to change! You proved the majority of us right while trying to prove us wrong. It is a shame that people who pay 5 times as much as other subscribers for service are held to the same data threshold.
Brian, please read the quoted text below that Mitch Bowling posted on April 1, 2010.
"Let me put it in context. With 250 GB of data usage, you could download more than 200 DVD quality movies from your favorite movie store (at 1.2 GB/movie and $3.99 per rental) or you could download more than 62,500 songs (at 4 Mb/song and $0.99/song) or send more than 50 million simple text emails. Currently, fewer than 1% of our customers use more than 250 GB of data in a month, which is a massive amount and, if left unmanaged, could degrade the online experience of other customers."
So... If you plan to use your Comcast internet connection past the samples in the paragraph above, than I would suggest that you look into getting a "telecommuter" account through Comcast or try another service provider.
When/If the Data Usage Meter is available for use on your ( http://customer.comcast.com ) Customer Central homepage from Comcast; I'd recommend that you check the actual usage and see just how close you come to the 250 gigs/month. I think you would be quite surprised to find that you don't get anywhere near that cap.
For more information, click the link below...
http://networkmanagement.comcast.net/datausagemeter.htm
Our modems went from DOCSIS 1.0 to 2.0 (not3.0) and downstream 4 channels instead of 1. up is still 1 stream but faster.
HuH?
When DOCSIS 3.0 comes to Houston, it will be much faster than what U-Verse offers. Too bad I will never go with your service because of your cap, whereas AT&T does not have one. Absolutely ridiculous.
I love the recent "fiber fast downloads" advertising. You should do "life like picture quality" next.
Hey Mitch,
Invest in some UPSs for the datacenter and stop sending out emails that state "no emails were lost" when they really were dring the 4/4/09 outage.
Also, let the people in the call center know about the outage so that when we call for refunds they know what we are talking about.
Yes, refunds, this error cost me time and money as a result, you should not get paid for not doing your job.
There are two variables: speed and volume. I work from home so time = money. The speed of my VPN connection literrally dictates how much work I'm able to complete. I want as much speed as possible yet I still use less than 50GB/month.
A couple of questions:
- If I don't want to pony up the $140 extra per month to get 50mbps download is there any other reason to upgrade to a docsis 3.0 modem? My Toshiba PCX2600 (docsis 2.0) manages to get around 18mbps now in burst mode but as you know the male of the species can never have enough speed!
- I'm a fairly heavy usage user (50+GB/month) but I really think you should move to a "pay per usage" model as opposed to a cap model. Obviously you need to provide a more intrinsic feedback mechanism for usage (e.g. a meter) but in the long run you could easily DOMINATE all broadband (or at least more than you already do!). This may sound funny but you may even think about a physical device that is connected to the modem with a monthly usage meter (and speed) and physical dials to control them (e.g. limits on speed, usage). It would provide customers with a very real tangible feedback mechanism.
There are two pricing variables (speed/volume). My parents could care less about either so offer a low end DSL comparable plan (728/128Kb, 25GB) for them at $10/month with a $1/GB overage charge. I work from home so “time = money” literally so I want high speed but I don’t need excessive volume (50/10MB, 100GB) for $60/month. I know you want to keep your billing system simple but you guys need to kick FIOS in the butt while you’re cost per subscriber is lower. There is no way they can compete in the low end with the installation cost of FIOS.
Please tell me the point of having 50/10 when we could reach the bandwidth cap within a few days...
Actually this link http://comcast.p.delivery.net/m/p/com/wid/wideband.asp does not tell you when Docsis 3.0 will be available. It tells you IF it's available. It asks you to put in your zip code and will tell you if the new speeds are currently available. If not, it will ask for your email address and zip code to inform you when it does become available. Since the summer of 08 it has always told me that "The new Comcast HSI is on it's way. Quickly!" I always LOL when I see the word quickly. I can assure you that my definition of the word quickly is vastly different than that of Comcast.
Our excessive use threshold is a generous 250 GB/month and that has not changed. We have it in place because we have an obligation to ensure that all of our customers get access to their fair share of bandwidth and can't let a very small group of users negatively impact the experience of the other 99+%. Let me put it in context. With 250 GB of data usage, you could download more than 200 DVD quality movies from your favorite movie store (at 1.2 GB/movie and $3.99 per rental) or you could download more than 62,500 songs (at 4 Mb/song and $0.99/song) or send more than 50 million simple text emails. Currently, fewer than 1% of our customers use more than 250 GB of data in a month, which is a massive amount and, if left unmanaged, could degrade the online experience of other customers.
Hey, Mitch. I'm really excited about the advent of Docsis 3.0, especially when you say that it's rolling out in the Philadelphia Metro area! I signed up to be notified when it's available in my zip code, and am really excited to upgrade.
That being said, now that it's possible to get up to 10x more bandwidth out of your cable connection, will Comcast be raising the download cap (or better yet, eliminating it all together?) I could be out-of-date with this notion, but last I heard, there was a 250GB/month cap.
Thanks, and congrats on the new site!
Jessie, Docsis 3.0 will be pushed to your bootfile. You would then need to reboot your modem to pull the new bootfile. If you are looking for the ultra and extreme 50 speed tier, then you will need a Docsis 3.0 modem. This link will give you information about when it will be available in your area. http://comcast.p.delivery.net/m/p/com/wid/wideband.asp
I'm sure I'm asking the same question that others are thinking -- How do the people who already have the old technology go about getting upgraded? I assume DOCSIS 3.0 needs new hardware or is it as easy as flashing the software on our current devices?