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Review by justbits See Profile

  • Location: Chicago, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $100 per month (36 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
Fast. Appears to be unrestricted/unthrottled. Provides static IPv4 for servers.
Dynamic price changes hidden in contract, constantly going up, without good competitive justification!
The value proposition is disappearing when static IP and modem rental fees are constantly going up.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Bottom line: If you need static IPs, go with a VPS (virtual private server) and a 'permanent' VPN to your 'residential' service.
Comcast Business is the lowest cost, highest speed, unrestricted Internet service in my area, so I'm stuck with that, at the least.

What's so bad?
Insane amounts of junk mail: I get at least 10 emails per week advertising "Our lowest prices ever" even though I already have their service. I get at least 2 pieces of snail mail per week advertising that I can have Comcast Business Class Internet service, which I already have!
Poor pre-sales does not point out all of the fees that can and will frequently change.
Poor value: static IP and modem rental fees are going up every 3 months. A service that "on contact" started at a bottom line of $80/mo (10/2013) is now $100/mo (1/2015).
Poor value: The 16/3 "starter" plan is stagnating. It should have been upgraded to 25Mbps, but Comcast is purposely leaving it slow to 'entice' users to upgrade.
Poor value: Comcast fees for the 5 static IPv4 configuration are $12.95+$25.95/month = $466.80/year for the privilege.
I was willing to bear the cost when it was $5 rental+$15 = $240 for 5 static IPs. I'm very close to dumping Comcast Business Class Internet static IPs and their "modem rental fee" and using a VPS with VPN in the $50-$100/year.

What's my history with Internet service?
I run servers, so I need static IPv4 addresses. Really, I only need static IPv4 addresses for my email services and DNS services. Everything else is dynamic capable.
I was using AT&T Business DSL. I got tired of the slow (3 Mbps) speeds and the fact that AT&T U-verse passed my neighborhood by 1 block.
First, I tried Comcast Residential Blast, $40/mo. That was totally awesome! However, Comcast Residential claimed they offered static Internet IPs, but were totally clueless about what that actually means. (They confused private LAN with public Internet.)
Annoyed with the price difference, but more upset with AT&T, I moved to Comcast Business Class Internet.
So, I ordered 12/2. After a few months, I was automatically upgraded to 16/3. But, where other plans have doubled in speed, the "started" package is stagnating.
The supplied equipment is the SMCD3GCCR, which is the only modem they claim supports public static IP addresses.
Installation was painless, since I had previously tried Comcast Residential service.

Bad: The equipment rental fee cannot be avoided for static IP service. I would gladly pay a one-time-fee every few years instead of a constantly changing rental fee.
Bad: The equipment rental fee increased from $5/mo to $9/mo and then to $13/mo and there isn't a way to break contract when they do this.
Bad: The static IP fee increased from $15/mo to $25/mo, with a bogus claim that this is "in-line" with other providers in my area!
Bad: These unrestricted price increases are quickly becoming unacceptable.

Bad: No IPv6 for static IP addresses yet… and it looks like when they do offer static IPv6 they are going to charge a monthly fee. That's bullshit. Other providers are offering free static IPv6 tunnels!

Good: When there are clearly defined problems, contacting Comcast Business via »forums.businesshelp.comcast.com/ will get you pretty quick service response.

Bad/Good: There was a DNS and expired Outlook certificate issue that were handled within 1 business day of notifying Comcast of the problem. Fact of the matter though is neither problem should have occurred in the first place.

Bad: The free SiteBuilder account was lost after a recent 'service upgrade' that Comcast performed, without notifying customers.

member for 21.2 years, 3719 visits, last login: 58 days ago
updated 9.1 years ago