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Comcast Ups Cable Speed to 16Mbit

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

March 29, 2006, 12:29 PM

In an effort to fend off competition from Verizon's FiOS service, which offers download speeds of up to 15Mbit per second, Comcast has doubled the speed of its top-tier broadband service to 16Mbit. The change is currently being rolled out in a few markets, including Reston, Va.; Sarasota, Fla.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Howard County, Md.

Along with the faster downloads, users will now be able to upload at a speed of 1Mbit per second. The service costs $52.95 USD per month. Other cable operators such as Cox and Adelphia have taken a similar approach to Verizon encroaching on their territory. Comcast says its move was not made specifically in response to the competition, but simply to test new applications it can offer with such high broadband speeds.

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By jetcom

edited Apr 1, 2007 - 8:33 PM

i have comcast high speed internet here in jacksonville fl and i live in apartment complex of 315 units where every one have a cable modem and i had the 6mbps speed but i dont know if we got the new speed yet but i am seeing speeds of 12 to 20 mbps and thats with out power boost. i gave comast a call and thay say thay r installing new equipmint now to support the new speeds and if that is the new speed then i am happy with comast think god for comcast

Score: 0

By TokenBad

edited Jan 5, 2007 - 2:26 AM

Well I live in mcminnville oregon and never had a problem with tech support. They have always been right on top of my speed issues when I have them...and any tv errors was fixed right over the phone or a tech was sent out and problem fixed...So in the 3 years I have been out here and had comcast I can't really complain..and my speeds are actually over the advertised speeds for me...on downloads anyway...uploads are pretty much right on...

TokenBad

Score: 0

By lemonlovr

posted Mar 31, 2006 - 12:21 AM

Hmmm... wonder when Chicago will get upgraded. I was just offered a free upgrade to 8Mbit then $52.95 thereafter ... but the jump from 6 to 8 didn't seem to justify the extra $10. Now a jump from 6 to 16 would be well worth the money.

I would guess that since Chicago and its suburbs are one of Comcast's biggest markets that they are "testing" the speed increases in smaller markets...? Hope they don't test for too long.

Score: 0

By M^3

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 1:23 PM

The biggest problem I have with verizon is there customer service is generally incompetant. It almost always take more than one call to straighten things out. Maybe it is just my luck with them, but I doubt it. When I moved out of my mother's houst I took my dsl service with me. She got her own the same day. The are still trying to figure out their billing issues. Last year I had bad download speeds and perfect upload speeds on my dsl. It took them over a month to fix it and over 6 calls. And when I got someone in billing to reimburse me for the month, they screwed that up and I got 24 cents back! I just didn't think it was worth calling them back to fix this screwup.

Score: 0

By M3wThr33

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 4:42 AM

Increase the upload! The download is fast enough!

Score: 0

By BoiseComputerService

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 11:48 AM

Exactly. These companies give you huge download speeds and a tiny upload speed. I am running dual 7 megabit dsl lines with 896kilobit uploads on each. I am load balancing them which gives me almost a 14 megabit download speed and a still not so high 1792 kilobit upload speed. This all for the sake of being able to support VPN from my home to my office. If they would just do the upload speed to half of the download speed it would be a huge improvement. To purchase receive a 1 megabit upload from qwest here you have to download at 4megabit and the cost is 3 times as much as the 7 megabit. Oh well.

Brian Aldridge
Boise Computer Service, Inc.
http://www.BoiseComputerService.com
http://www.BoiseComputerService.net

Score: 0

By 113David

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 1:56 AM

Comcast you are already too late. I was paying $62.00 bucks with tax for 5mb and was only actually getting real life speeds of 2mb (normal for my area) I went with Verizon's FiOS last month and now get every bit of 15mb and its 10 bucks cheaper and twice the speed over comcast. As soon as Verizon's FiOS has TV i'm ditching comcast all together. Over priced crappy service is all comcast is! really look in to Verizon's FiOS. Worth every dime!

Score: 0

By horsecharles

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 5:27 PM

Now, how about this happening in the capital of the world!!!????

Verizon is selectively being stingy with Fios rollouts, and Time Warner is-- well, just being AOL-ish..... This compact & dense city is such a great candidate for broadband, esp. WiMax: we should be leading the world-- our parks, taxis, buses, trains, subways, tunnels & briges should be already wired / antennaed-- but heck, we don't even have total cellular coverage yet.

In some ways it feels like living in the Third World-- right down to the reeking personal odor found in lots of taxis and subway cars.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:40 PM

Hey Comcast, Verizon just sent me a FIOS offer also! Raise my limits or I bail!

Score: 0

By irdepesca572

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 2:56 PM

Damnit, I live just next to Howard County in Baltimore County!

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:54 PM

This really isn't newsworthy. Cable providers have infrastructure to utilize much higher bandwidth. 100 Mbs is actually a good possibility, but we won't see, because DSL can't compete anywhere near those speeds.

Still, this is good they are finally moving past Token Ring/Star Topology speed. That only took what, 10 years?

Score: 0

By azimov

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 4:31 PM

here in the UK, cable provider NTL are trailing 100MBit services. ADSL2 is available/ on trail in London and other major cities where you can get upto 24Mbits.

Score: 0

By forgie

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:28 PM

I love competition. Brings out the best for the customer.

Score: 0

By jeffmwilhelm

edited Mar 29, 2006 - 1:24 PM

This happened in Rhode Island with Cox. Right after FIOS moved my cable was upped to 15Mb/2Mb.

Score: 0

By zee7

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:26 PM

Anyone who has had to deal with Comcast's incessant price gouging and notoriously bad customer service will thumb their nose at this. Fios can't come soon enough for me. I'll stick with SBC's cheaper, slower dsl in the meantime.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 2:47 PM

Comcast actually has some of the better customer service. Evidently you haven't dealt with charter cable, they are the worst.

Or even Time warner, ever since AOL took them over, they are slowly declining..

Cable companies are notorious for bad customer service, but Comcast is the better of the bad, if you can look at that way.

Score: 0

By 113David

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 1:59 AM

I dont know what city you live in but comcast here is just plain nasty to people when they call here in VA. Really they are just out right rude.

Score: 0

By zee7

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:14 PM

I'll take you word for it since, you're right, I haven't dealt with those other cablecos. I hear WOW has the best customer service... too bad the others don't pick up their good habits.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:51 PM

WOW, as in World of Warcraft? They do?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 5:30 PM

lmao..

Sure! Instant problem resolution:

Complain to GM.

Recieve PermaBan.

Done deal. Problem solved.

Customer Service at it's best. :P

Score: 0

By Kramy

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 12:49 AM

Pfft, morons. It's WoW. You didn't even spell it right. ;)

Score: 0

By zee7

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 9:07 PM

Heh. Funny guys.

WOW = Wide Open West.

http://www1.wowway.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Open_West

Score: 0

By shy_one

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:15 PM

i feel sorry for people who need to call the support line a guy i know says some of the people there are realy stupid one of examples he told me was one of the support people had to have someone go to her house to try to get her internet working turns out the only thing wrong was the modem wasn't plugged in.

Score: 0

By Straspey

edited Mar 29, 2006 - 4:54 PM

That's too bad. I have Cablevision and although there's a lot of negative things you can say about them, their customer service is pretty good.

Last week I noticed the network was particularly slow for a couple of days so I got on the phone with a girl at customer service who was on top of the problem due to upgrades being done in my area, but just to be sure she was able to ping my modem from her station and get immediate transfer data. She stayed on the phone while remotely troubleshooting my connection. It cleared up the next day.

Now, if only their TV service didn't suck so bad. Anyone here use satellite TV ?

Score: 0

By cousinkix1953

edited Mar 30, 2006 - 12:36 AM

I can't get COMCAST to clean up my lousy TV reception. Psychedelic pictures on tbe lower channels, are the creations of local ham radio operators, with RF linear amplifiers, and their damned keaky cable system that attracts unwanted signals like fresh crap does the flies.

Dealing with idiot cable TV techs got old really fast. I wouldn't give you the time of day for COMCAST's internet access no matter how good it gets. At least the SBC guy, who fixed our DSL (right the first time we called) knew what he was doing and there was no BS from him either...

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:03 PM

Damn. Why can't this battle be taking place in the upper midwest?

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:49 PM

Who are you kidding? NOTHING takes place in the upper midwest...:)

Score: 0

By gdwsr44

edited Mar 29, 2006 - 2:52 PM

We may not have the fastest broadband speeds but I think we produce most of the food the rest of you need. Ahhhh kinda dumb...sorry

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:55 PM

:P

Didn't ya hear? We're the next Hollywood.

...or not.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 2:48 PM

would that be Iowa? I did hear that..

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 5:28 PM

Minnesota. But close enough.

6Mb DSL for $29.95 a month. Not bad, actually.

But 16Mb would be better. ;P

Score: 0

By Bugeyes

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:27 PM

Iowa - Mediacom Cable - 3 meg down, 256 up, and 55.95 a month + tax.

Gotta love price gouging.

Score: 0

By frankwick

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 4:48 PM

How is the McLeodUSA DSL service?

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:52 PM

hehe.. I feel your pain. I am paying $120.00 but I have the full digital package, but I have 8 meg down now.. nah nah nah nah

Score: 0

By canv15

edited Mar 29, 2006 - 12:48 PM

i think i am kicking bellsouth goodbye

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:52 PM

You haven't done it already? DSL is so pre-9/11

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

edited Mar 29, 2006 - 6:59 PM

Yeah, but since I no longer waste my money on cable TV, 12.99 a month for dsl is good enough for me...

Score: 0

By Das mod

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 12:38 PM

what ? did i see adelphia in there ???
SWEET !!!

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 3:53 PM

DUDE! What does my shirt say?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 30, 2006 - 9:52 AM

avoiding the obvious quote reference,

i'll guess,

"Jesus Saves"?

*grin*

Score: 0

By Adrian79

posted Mar 29, 2006 - 1:32 PM

my adelphia is still as slow as always :-(

Score: 0

By BIGMANDFN

edited Jun 9, 2008 - 4:16 PM

Hall Co Georgia Comcast Speed test.
Last Result:
Download Speed: 31698 kbps (3962.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 4195 kbps (524.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

This of coarse is with Power Boost. Down load tests are a little hard to test after speed boost cause most downloads dont go much over 8Meg but My upload tests to my own server flattens out at about 2100kbs steady.

Score: 0

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