Comcast gets a theoretical upstream speed boost
 |
 |
Comcast announced today that it has increased the upstream speeds nationwide for customers of two of its residential Internet packages, from 384 and 768 Kbps to 1 and 2 Mbps, respectively.
The nation's number two broadband service provider in 2007, behind AT&T, announced this morning it is tripling the upstream speed of its Performance and Performance Plus residential high-speed Internet packages that range from $42.95-$67.95 a month were announced to have "nearly tripled" in speed.
This morning, BetaNews tested these increased speeds in three US locations, and saw at least a kind of change in performance, not necessarily for the better.
The first image represents a Broadband Reports test done on June 6 in Indianapolis, before Comcast had announced any performance enhancements, with a 625 Kbps upstream speed. Speeds taken at around 10:30 this morning show only a tiny increase to upstream speeds, likely attributable to general flow of traffic, not any actual difference in network delivery.
|
| A graph showing an apparent speed boost for Comcast service in Macomb County, Michigan. Click on the graph to see it in full-size. |
This graph is a performance test taken this morning in Michigan, where the gold line "TX" represents Transmit Speed. At just around 1 Mbps, Comcast has indeed allowed speeds to come up a bit. (The "RX" receive speed line on this graph represents what the test system was receiving at the time, while it was "on idle" -- that doesn't mean the perceived receive speed is actually slower.)
Speeds measured this morning in Maryland on a Comcast-hosted system with a "Performance" package generally hovered at a 650 Kbps upstream speed with sporadic bursts into the 800 Kbps range, just barely squeaking past the Performance Plus tier's prior ceiling.
With these tests in three discrete Comcast markets showing inconsistent results, it begins to look like Comcast is providing, to use a common aphorism, "a lot of sizzle" for an upgrade that will not deliver solid results across the board.
BetaNews invites those of you who are Comcast users to perform similar tests and share your findings with us.