Comcast Exploring 250 Mbps Service > That's nice but..

reply to KodiacZiller

Re: That's nice but..

reply to N3OGH
The speeds are never promised... they are always UP TO Xmps and never guranteed... guess thats what happens when your not an educated consumer purchasing cable products... Then again no one ever compliments the power boost either!

I understand it's "up to".

Guess I expected more than 156K down from my "BMW" when paying so much.

That's OK, the provider I left for gave me consistent up and download speeds from both of their offerings, so I am happy.
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Petty people are disproportionally corrupted by petty power

reply to Chasmn08
I distaste anonymous cowards that post this kinda stuff to justify Comcast's policy to screw people in select markets because of a monopolistic position and political bribes contributions...

I agree with what

reply to N3OGH
Bravo! You sent a message by leaving AND you left more bandwidth for us

reply to KodiacZiller
I understand the rationale for discounts with TV service, but it is too great right now. It should be $10, not the $20ish that triple play customers get...

reply to Chasmn08
"up to" is an excuse. Plain and simple.

reply to SLD
It wasn't really that I was sending a message, as wanting usable service.

Which I have in spades, now.

My intention is not to Comcast bash. I'm the entire IT department for my PT job (Small concern, approx 40 users with 8 terminals and a server) and we have Comcast's business offering there. We can't get anything else, but I am extremely satisfied with their service thus far.

I would imagine they've made upgrades in my part of the woods. We were one of the first areas to have broadband in my neck of the woods back in 1999. No doubt by the time 2004 rolled around (when I left Comcast), the equipment was somewhat antiquated and/or maxed out.
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Petty people are disproportionally corrupted by petty power

reply to KodiacZiller
6 or half a dozen.... the price for internet IS more expensive stand-alone. There is a "discount" for bundles.. You're looking at the cheapest price as if it were the retail price.

Honestly, the internet for cable, at least, has been priced where I personally feel is correct and sustainable for a business model. Look at what happened when the Bell systems priced DSL where they did... they over sold and sold out, and then they realized they couldn't support their customers at that price. To the customer, especially Verizon customers, try getting a tech visit when something happened. You had to do about 15 steps over the phone, including moving the modem to a new line and changing the phone cord even BEFORE they would even discuss sending out a tech. That is simply a sign of they didn't want to support it. One single tech visit and that customer becomes a loss... and trust me, it showed clearly. (This didn't start happening until they priced DSL at $12.95 a month.

Personally, I don't have a problem with discounting when you take more than one service from a provider.. the alternative is simple.. everyone pays a higher price all around. And seriously, if cable did that, phone would be right on their heels doing the same thing; raising prices and stopping any bundle discounts. This, however, is what competition gets you..., in some cases, higher prices.

reply to iansltx

No, it's an excuse, because Comcast has proven that they *can* deliver my advertised speeds 99.99% of the time (good enough for me) as long as the server on the other end supports those speeds.

Also, for the price of a T1 I could buy 50/10 from Comcast on the business side. Last I checked, 50 Mbps NEVER gets down to 1.5/1.5 even on a bad day.

Not true.. my speeds have, at times, gone way down as low as 8mg when I'm on a 30 meg line and I do have business class along side a residential modem.

And no, it's not an excuse.. I'm sorry.. it's not. It's reality. Networks CAN and do slow down.. they would be COMPLETE IDIOTS to say that they can deliver speeds 99.9% of the time.., that YOU know of. They know better, and so does anyone with technical experience. While you're getting your speeds most of the time, which is great, as it should be, there are times they can't, as you know.. the other times as you say..

The fact remains.. no network can always deliver the speeds at maximum rates. You also are not at your computer 100% of the time either so you don't know if your modem is slowing down when you're not there, right? So, to say 99.9% of the time, in my book, is 99.9% of the time YOU'RE using the internet.. and even then, you really don't know that you're getting the speeds at max when you're using it.. it's not like you have a constant speed meter running either. So while you're surfing the web, and say your connection is a 16meg connection, while the pages are loading quickly, you could actually be getting 10 or even less and not notice it.

Let me put it this way: when I need the speed, it's there, 99.99% of the time. When I'm at my computer, downloading/uploading files (which happens a lot...I use SFTP to do file transfers from my school to my apartment and the network path between the two is at 10-20% of capacirt) I get advertised speeds.

I'm not downloading 100% of the time; HFC can't do that. However when I need the speed it's there, and if it wasn't there and I isolated the cause to Comcast's network (which I can do and have done) then I would sure as heck complain. Sure, there's no SLA but, again, on a well-engineered network "up to" never comes into the equation on your side of the network, especially when your speed is capped at some fraction of the capacity of the network interface you're using (for example 12 Mbps out of 152 Mbps down and 2 Mbps out of 30 Mbps up).

I'm sorry you seem to be having problems with your Comcast connection, but I guess grinning and bearing it is a choice you've made

reply to N3OGH

reply to iansltx
My connection is just fine... It does have a time or two that I have issues.. every connection does and that's my point.

How do I say this... one can't say they always get advertised speeds if they don't know about the time it MAY NOT be getting them. However, say your connection did slow down and you're not at your computer. But, say the time it DID slow and you were there.. that's the weakest link.. and that's what they are talking about "up to"... there is always a chance that your speeds can dip..

I have the choice to have Century Link (barf) but chose, yes, not to take them.. It's more expensive than Comcast and the speeds are MUCH lower.. not to mention the games they play with those that want static IP addresses... having to take business class service, a business class phone line, and so many features in order to even get statics.. and THEN in order to get reverse DNS they require the higher DSL speeds (as if speed has anything to do with Reverse DNS, right?) So yea.. comcast is my choice - and I'm perfectly happy with them. Even the rare times I've noticed a dip in speeds, they've been perfectly fine.. so instead of downloading a file in a few minutes, it takes just a few more..

To this day, I've never had my speeds go anywhere below 6meg, if even for that long and I can live with that.

Semantics

I said that *I* always get advertised speeds, not that my connection provides advertised speeds 100% of the time.

Sorry to hear about CenLink though; I have family on formerly Embarq DSL and things were solid/speedy for them. Then again, the competition was TWC-Carolinas, aka the provider with crap upload speeds.

Lol.. I'll take that as condolences..

Before I bought this house, I lived in Qwest territory. To be honest, I was MORE than happy with that service. I only used it for my servers. It was a 1.5 / 896 line; ROCK solid! I was able to get stand alone service with statics for about $55 a month and was happier than a pig in slop. I also had the comcast connection, Residential service, for all the desktops. Talk about a nightmare. At first, it was great, but, I was one of the lucky people with an apartment complex on my node and it wasn't the best complex either, if you know what I mean. LOTS of theft going on there and lots of ingress into the system which took our modems down all the time. (Took the internet and phones down all the time) Finally, we got that fixed but then I moved.

I think Embarq/Century.. WHO EVER they are these days, sells things differently in each area. I can get a stand-alone residential service but no statics or any reverse DNS service. That's one thing I LOVED about Qwest.. they'd give you statics and reverse on any connection. Speeds sucked, for for an email server and general FTP/Web, it was great. Again, Century, up here, wants you to step through all their products.. so I just said screw it.. took Comcast business service for $69 a month. It's been great so far.. just have had a problem or two but nothing the lines techs couldn't take care of.. think it had to do with the Business Class expansion construction they were doing out here. Also, it doesn't hurt that many techs live in my area both home and line and that I have an employee living with me either. But, besides all that, the service has been stable with out any intervention from inside the house if you know what I mean. I also did all the internal wiring myself when the house was built so it was done correctly.

Oh yea.. I wasn't impressed with the Embarq/Century speeds for the price either... and I TOTALLY didn't want their phone service JUST to have business service.

reply to fiberguy

reply to iansltx