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Comments on news posted 2012-08-15 14:21:58: Earlier this summer we scooped a number of planned upcoming changes to Comcast's broadband offerings, including the introduction of a new 305 Mbps (and $300) broadband tier -- and the doubling in speed of the existing Xfinity Blast! and Extreme 50 cu.. ..

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Ultibeam
join:2008-05-27
USA

Ultibeam

Member

Good deal for 300

300/75 for $20 more is a great deal when it's three times the amount, which is 200/50 more for just $20.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 recommendation

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

Good deal for who? They would love for everyone to jump on that tier, its free money, and especially when 99% of households NEVER, surpass more than like 30Mbps at one time.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Good deal for 300

said by ITALIAN926:

Good deal for who? They would love for everyone to jump on that tier, its free money, and especially when 99% of households NEVER, surpass more than like 30Mbps at one time.

The sweet spot is the Performance tier at 25/5 for $49 and is more than enough for most households. Note I said MOST and not ALL households.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

1 edit

Os

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

There's little incentive to pay more for speed that you can't use, but 300/75 for $119 is definitely a solid price for that speed, if you should want it when compared to 100/25 for $99.

And I'm assuming these prices are less in Double/Triple Plays for customers getting TV and/or phone service.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: Good deal for 300

I see 100/25 for $99.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

Os

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

I was thinking what the Extreme tier currently is.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: Good deal for 300

Still, the 300/75 tier is 200% better at only a 20% price increase.

bohratom
My Jersey Giants finally winning again..
join:2011-07-07
Red Bank NJ

bohratom

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

It's also a good deal for FIOS customers as their 300/65mb service is currently priced at $205. In areas that overlap with comcast I would expect that price to drop almost 50%.
ssavoy
Premium Member
join:2007-08-16
Dallas, PA

ssavoy to jmn1207

Premium Member

to jmn1207
Proof that the major costs are incurred in the physical network, not bandwidth.
travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Bismarck, ND
Asus RT-AC68
Ubiquiti NSM5

travelguy

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

said by ssavoy:

Proof that the major costs are incurred in the physical network, not bandwidth.

Unfortunately download speed is not the same as bandwidth.
jmmilner2
join:2011-05-17
Yorkville, IL
ARRIS SB6183

jmmilner2 to Os

Member

to Os
said by Os:

And I'm assuming these prices are less in Double/Triple Plays for customers getting TV and/or phone service.

Those are the bundled prices - as the article says, standalone will be at least $15 more.
squarecat
Premium Member
join:2009-08-09
Denver, CO

squarecat to Os

Premium Member

to Os
$119/mo is what I pay in the Denver metro area for Extreme 50(/15).

edit: (Which ends up being about 20-25Mbps DL over WiFi...)
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

said by ITALIAN926:

Good deal for who? They would love for everyone to jump on that tier, its free money, and especially when 99% of households NEVER, surpass more than like 30Mbps at one time.

The sweet spot is the Performance tier at 25/5 for $49 and is more than enough for most households. Note I said MOST and not ALL households.

Charter already offers 30/4 for $50. Though their 100/5 tier for $100 is a joke compared to Comcast's offerings in the speed range. Thought you do get a 500 GB cap vs 300 GB with Comcast.

PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD

PGHammer to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
Agreed - I'm a former Blast customer that dropped back to Performance two years back simply because I couldn't use the extra bandwidth (due to limitations at the other end - not mine).

If you have wired gigabit from PC to cable/xDSL modem (including the router link to said modem), the slowest link in the chain will be at the target end; worse, if it's a video site, it will be significantly slower (due to QoS at their end - not yours). The only time I can use all the bandwidth I have *now* is to have the single connection running to a major source (such as Microsoft or Apple - both of whom partner with Akamai), and all too often this is neither practical or possible.

danclan
join:2005-11-01
Midlothian, VA

danclan to ITALIAN926

Member

to ITALIAN926

Good deal for who? They would love for everyone to jump on that tier, its free money, and especially when 99% of households NEVER, surpass more than like 30Mbps at one time.

You sure about that? In my household we consistently exceed 30mbps with VOD services, gaming and other multimedia....have a few kids and see how that works out for you.

I would say that the average household uses more bandwidth when its freely available and they dont crush each other than many people suspect. Want to watch in HD...no problem, jr wants to pull that massive game patch while you are trying to watch a flick again NO PROBLEM.... you arent going to tick off mom or dad cause there is ample headroom and vice versa

My real issue will be can they deliver that top end speed to all those that sign up for it without negative impacts to their infrastructure...

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: Good deal for 300

said by danclan:

My real issue will be can they deliver that top end speed to all those that sign up for it without negative impacts to their infrastructure...

That's what the caps are for, to protect the infrastructure.
09129800 (banned)
join:2012-06-27
New York, NY

1 recommendation

09129800 (banned) to ITALIAN926

Member

to ITALIAN926
I get it now. He works for AT&T.

When he was trolling Google Fiber I thought he was a cable company shill. But nope, cable companies can handle 300 Mbps with DOCSIS 3.0.

This guy must be employed by AT&T U-verse, because they cannot expand their speeds much farther than 30 Mbps. It would make sense to be constantly damage controlling fast Internet speeds whether it's fiber optics or DOCSIS 3.0 cable because he has to help keep a dead-end product like U-verse alive.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

Wrong.

You must write chinese fortunes or horoscopes.
09129800 (banned)
join:2012-06-27
New York, NY

09129800 (banned)

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

I don't know what your deal is, but it's clear that you work in some industry that would benefit from everyone having mediocre Internet connections.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

Let me ask you a question. Your sister is looking for an internet service that suits her needs. She has 3 kids, they all have smart-phones that hook up to wi-fi, they play XBOX360 and PS3 online. They have laptops, and they stream Netflix to 2 TV's in the house. Occasionally, they will stream the 2 TV's at the same time.
Let me ask you, what speed tier would you suggest to your sister?

Would you seriously advise her to get a 300Mbps connection? and let her waste her money? I wouldnt even suggest the 50 Mbps!

2 TV;s streaming Netflix at the same time, 10 Mbps , XBOX and PS3 going concurrently, add another whopping 2 Mbps. Assuming people are using the laptops and smartphones to facebook. (Ha.) I'll even throw in another 10 Mbps, which isnt even real world. "25 Mbps my dear sister."

The bottom line is speed increases are great. Of course they are required for the future... but Comcast coming out with a 300Mbps to match FiOS is nothing but a marketing gimmick. Wasnt it supposed to be 305 Mbps?? Verizon can, and probably will come out with like 500Mpbs to gloat that theyre the fastest. Honestly, they should just come out with a new PON to match, even surpass Google, but seriously, just for bragging rights?

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: Good deal for 300

Just yesterday I was reinstalling Borderlands Game of the Year from Steam when I got a text alert about a baseball game I was interested in. I went to MLB.com and started the NexDef HD stream of the game. My 50 Mbps connection was being fully utilized. That's just one person.

Now with these HD capable game consoles having the ability to stream content, they pull way over 1-2 Mbps. And if you only have 2-5 Mbps upload, you can cripple your network much easier if you don't have any headroom.

This is now, these speeds are realistically capable of being useful and even necessary. Although, if you aren't in a region that has FiOS and a competing cable company, you might not have the local infrastructure in place to really take advantage of this type of performance.

danclan
join:2005-11-01
Midlothian, VA

danclan to 09129800

Member

to 09129800
meh...nm

but comcast has a 300gb soft cap now...with warnings and additional 50GB for i think 20$

PapaMidnight
join:2009-01-13
Baltimore, MD

PapaMidnight

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

If there are warnings and additional charges, that's not a soft cap. A soft cap is a cap which is applied loosely and on a case by case basis to the most data hungry of users. In example, even after the introduction of the 250GB soft cap, I was still doing 300-400GB combined per month of data transfer. But you'll note that in many instances, it was the persons doing in excess of 1TB a month who were receiving warnings for their data transfer.

Ultibeam
join:2008-05-27
USA

Ultibeam to ITALIAN926

Member

to ITALIAN926
said by ITALIAN926:

Good deal for who? They would love for everyone to jump on that tier, its free money, and especially when 99% of households NEVER, surpass more than like 30Mbps at one time.

I would like to know where you got 99% of households only using up to 30Mbps at any one time. I see the rise of cloud services making super fast broadband a necessity. Look at why Google is trying to deliver 1Gbps to households. Online services have been on the increase year over year.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

Keyword : "rise" , Im talking NOW.

Ultibeam
join:2008-05-27
USA

Ultibeam

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

So you're the wait 'till I need it kind of person. That's fine, some of us like to live in the fast lane.
sava700
join:2005-03-08
united state

sava700 to ITALIAN926

Member

to ITALIAN926
said by ITALIAN926:

Good deal for who? They would love for everyone to jump on that tier, its free money, and especially when 99% of households NEVER, surpass more than like 30Mbps at one time.

Yeah this isn't no good deal... its only for those few lucky to already have FIOS!! How does this help the rest of us!! I have Comcast so much.
09129800 (banned)
join:2012-06-27
New York, NY

09129800 (banned) to Ultibeam

Member

to Ultibeam
Not if it's capped like all of Comcap's other Internet plans.

I'll take Verizon's UNCAPPED FiOS offerings over Comcap any day! This new connection has the potential to rack up $20,000 in "overage fees" in just one month under Comcap's new 300 GB cap/$10 per 50 GB Internet overcharging scam.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

said by 09129800:

Not if it's capped like all of Comcap's other Internet plans.

I'll take Verizon's UNCAPPED FiOS offerings over Comcap any day! This new connection has the potential to rack up $20,000 in "overage fees" in just one month under Comcap's new 300 GB cap/$10 per 50 GB Internet overcharging scam.

Who is going to use 98 TB a month?
09129800 (banned)
join:2012-06-27
New York, NY

09129800 (banned)

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

I would.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

1 recommendation

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

said by 09129800:

I would.

Not legally you wouldn't.
mogamer
join:2011-04-20
Royal Oak, MI

mogamer

Member

Re: Good deal for 300

said by 88615298:

said by 09129800:

I would.

Not legally you wouldn't.

He could if he was running a server business out of his house. Of course, that would probably be a violation of a residential service contract.

MOWAA
join:2010-03-25
Fort Lauderdale, FL

MOWAA to 88615298

Member

to 88615298

said by 88615298 See Profile
Not legally you wouldn't.


Seriously why is it anyones concern what they legally or illegally do with their connection?

But here, use github to do push/pull on large projects and you see how fast you run out bandwidth.
There a legal use on a residential line.

forealze
@wideopenwest.com

forealze to Ultibeam

Anon

to Ultibeam
said by Ultibeam:

300/75 for $20 more is a great deal when it's three times the amount, which is 200/50 more for just $20.

I would rather have that 200/50 for 20$
Expand your moderator at work

banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
Premium Member
join:2001-08-18
Frisco, TX

banditws6

Premium Member

Performance moves to 25/5?

25/5 for $49. Yes, please. Would Time Warner in Plano/Frisco like to match this? We're a FiOS town too.

Look, I'm begging you guys.
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch

Member

Tempting

I'm tempted, but I've just had way too much trouble with Comcast. My U-verse, although slower, has been rock solid in terms of reliability, only going out twice in the last two years, and one outage was due to my phone line needing to be cut to remove a tree after a tornado, and the second one was apparently due to some cable repairs they had to make, which caused a few intermittent outages.

If Comcast could promise me they wouldn't repeat my cable fiasco of a few years ago, I might bite, but I can't risk going through that again. If nothing else, my wife would kill me.
09129800 (banned)
join:2012-06-27
New York, NY

1 edit

09129800 (banned)

Member

What's the BANDWIDTH CAP like?

I'd rather have uncapped 5 Mbps than some piece of shit capped 300 Mbps connection. If Comcap applies their 300 GB bandwidth cap and overage charging scam to this tier then it will be a clear example of a polished turd.

At 300 Mbps speeds you can transfer over 95 terabytes of data in one month. So a 300 GB bandwidth cap on such a speed tier would be beyond ridiculous.

Can you imagine if you actually used this new speed tier to its full potential and Comcap applied their "$10 per 50 GB" bandwidth overage scam to you?

You'd be looking at almost $20,000 in overage fees in just one month. And if you maxed the upload speed as well you'd have a bill for over $25,000.

SCAM!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL

Zoder

Member

Modem rental price decrease

If that's accurate it looks like the cable modem rental will be going down from $7 back to $3 which it hasn't been in years.
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678

Member

Re: Modem rental price decrease

but with phone it's $3 more and that is for a router?

So is there still a modem fee?

Are you going to be forced to rent there router now?

New customs only?

Must wait for hardware to come though the system to get a lower rate?

SterlingJ85
join:2000-11-19
Austin, TX

SterlingJ85

Member

Move to PON already...

They already have a dense fiber network, one that comes close to customers already. Swap out the HFC components for PON, and their costs to deliver fast speeds and better quality service plummets. Why stick with cable, when can easily switch to PON. I would bet you in many areas the ROI would be made within a couple of years, when you factor in maintenance costs on the HFC network.

•••••••••••••

Basic1
@fiu.edu

Basic1

Anon

Basic? $29? I'm there!

If I can get basic for $29/mo., then I am downgrading. Oops, should I have said that out loud?

••••
JeffinFrPrt
join:2004-06-26
Freeport, FL

JeffinFrPrt

Member

No love for Business Class users.

It would be nice if Comcast would take Business Class users into consideration with the upcoming bandwidth increase.

•••

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt

Premium Member

What happened to the 305Mb/s tier...

that Comcast was supposed to be offering to best the top tier at FiOS?

Maybe FiOS will increase their upload speeds to match comcast. That is what I really need. More upload speed. I already hit my max upload speed of 70Mb/s when I'm uploading to my cloud drives. Any upload increase from FiOS would be welcome.
bgoodbody
Bill G
join:2002-05-08
North Truro, MA

1 edit

bgoodbody

Member

Blast? is gone

Blast is gone???? it gets dropped and ????

Looks Like Blast --> Preferred

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Amazing what a little bit of competition can do....

Expect similar things for the KC metro area as Google gets going.

Everywhere else, too bad.

... and it bears in mind what will happen if competition is shuttered in a market.

AnonTA
@comcast.net

AnonTA

Anon

Comcast Tiers

These Prices have already been implemented and changed on the East Coast Area as of August 1st All the price changes you are showing/Seeing have been completed. As far as West Coast Cali, WA OR, UT It has not been completed this isn't new its been common knowledge for at least 3 months now.
posthaste
join:2001-05-20
Champaign, IL

1 edit

posthaste

Member

Re: Comcast Tiers

said by AnonTA :

These Prices have already been implemented and changed on the East Coast Area as of August 1st All the price changes you are showing/Seeing have been completed. As far as West Coast Cali, WA OR, UT It has not been completed this isn't new its been common knowledge for at least 3 months now.

Right, but what's new is now the hoi polloi Comcast customers who don't live in FiOS areas know how long they have to wait for new tiers.

I'm in Illinois. Wake me up in 12+ months.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

thought through?

Hmm 5 pricing tiers? from 5 to 300? wha.. no 305? Oh yeah, we forgot.. wink, wink, nod, nod.. no compete agreement..

Also $3 more for voice router? You'd think if you're buying an extra service the equipment would be included.. afterall, you can't get the service w/o the router/modem for voice.. sherlock..

I think 5 tiers could easily be compressed to 4 or 3 depending on how competitive the market is..

proposed ranges:

5 megabits? Nope, delete! worth $0

25/5... I'm thinking $25.. (or $20 at most bundled).
50/10 $35 - $45 (all prices at this tier & above include modem rental)
100/25 $50-$60
30X/75 $89 - $99

Still in favor of the top 3 only (avg price ranges of $35, $50, $90).. unless you qualify as low income-- ie make below $30k a year.

The wired/wireless router for 300mbit service can handle 4 gigabit ethernet? Hmm.. that would make it a 10gigE port, no? whichever company's making that must be raking in the dough from Comcast..

And... 10GigE cards for a run-o-the-mill desktop are in the $200+ ballpark.. not exactly chump change.. Many good motherboards run in that price range.. Not to mention, you're cat 5 cable is now obsolete, minimum is 6(enhanced) or cat7.. which can handle 10-40gigabit. Plenty for 300mbit - 4gigabit.

These must be preliminary pricing points.. because it's a port of departure from their press releases. IIRC the 305mbit service was gonna be in the $300 price range. $119 is quite a drop, under $100 would really make things interesting.

Also, drop the C A P $$$!!!!!
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

i'll do it

Sure, i'll happily sign up Comcast! But you gotta finish runing the damn service in my area already!!
travisdh1
join:2007-10-20
Wooster, OH

travisdh1

Member

High speed low caps!

Pay us the most we've listed here and you can reach your cap in just 1 hour!

Seriously, are they offering that sort of speed with the same 250 - 300GB cap? Talk about stupid caps.

••••

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast XFINITY

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Already have the new speeds (and FiOS ain't available)

Already have the upgraded blast tier (50/10) in Springfield, MA and FiOS is not available anywhere in Western Massachusetts (but AT&T offers U-Verse south of the border in Northern Connecticut, which is a 15 minute drive away).

The upgrade is a welcome addition. I went back to the triple play and I rented an Arris TG862 gateway and it has 8x4 channel bonding.

JigglyWiggly
join:2009-07-12
Pleasanton, CA

JigglyWiggly

Member

Re: Already have the new speeds (and FiOS ain't available)

give me that 300 megabit price.
I pay that much for 50
comcast
stop taking my money
o wait fios areas
;'((((((((((((

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast XFINITY

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Re: Already have the new speeds (and FiOS ain't available)

said by JigglyWiggly:

give me that 300 megabit price.
I pay that much for 50
comcast
stop taking my money
o wait fios areas
;'((((((((((((

I happen to live in the Northeast, but I looked up Mediacom's offerings in my hometown of Cedar Rapids (IA) using my former neighbor's address and they have some sweet deals (for the first year and then they jack up the price) with very generous caps (Extreme 105 comes with 999 GB on Mediacom) but now I live in Comcast turf and Comcast is pretty decent until something goes wrong and it is impossible to get things fixed (although DSLR direct support works wonders) although they have low caps but I use about 30 GB per month.

It would be nice if broadband ISPs had to answer to state PUCs unless there is more than one provider in town offering similar speeds.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

I want the 50/10.

Talk about a great plan, reasonably priced, with great speed. Unfortunately, I may end up moving like a mile away from Comcast's territory.

It must be just a little weird for Comcast to be competing on price in FIOS markets, they are usually competing on speed, where the competitor (AT&T or non upgraded Verizon markets) has maybe 6mbps if you're lucky, and just undercuts Comcast on price.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

1 edit

mmay149q

Premium Member

They aren't competiting on price

They are just lowering the cost so that more people will accept per 50GB overages. I mean seriously would you pay $300 a month for a service with a 300GB cap and $10 per 50GB overages? I wouldn't I mean it's already horrible that for that cap you're paying almost $1 per GB anyway, gah when will people wake up and realize how screwed they're getting?!

Edit: Before people start saying "You pay that price because of the speed, not the cap!" You're paying for both.... 50 cents per GB, and 50 cents per Mbps, what a sad sad world, personally I don't even considering it paying for the speed when a cap is involved, because if you have to pay for overages, the best bang for your buck is when you get a larger cap for higher prices, not faster speed, people get this for their wireless smart phones, but not landline?!

Matt
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678

Member

to bad there TV BOX pricing / and hardware sucks next direct

to bad there TV BOX pricing / and hardware sucks next directv.

and there channel map is a mess and there gui is so old.

Also directv has better multi room and more sports HD.

and you don't need sports pack to get speed channel or fox movie.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

New modem required?

I currently have the "Performance" plan that is 12/2 and I use my own SB5100 modem that has been rock-solid reliable for many years now. If (and I say if because Comcast really has no competition in Atlanta) they upgrade the "Performance" tier to 25/5, will I have to buy a new DOCSIS3 modem? I refuse to rent a modem, I like having my own.

••••
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