Comcast XFINITY → [Business] Way to deceive to us Comcast

Looks like the cat is out of the bag and we were devceive not only by Comcast itself but by the "nice" folks here from Corporate that pretended to help.

pflog knows all fine and well what I am talking about.

Edit: Forgot the link.

»Cable Industry Retiring PowerBoost [59] comments

I'd trade a slightly higher sustained upload or download speed for powerboost in a heartbeat.

I realize that retiring powerboost is by no means a guarantee of a higher sustained rate, the concern I have is for areas where there is existing evening/prime-time congestion. My understanding is that powerboost is the first thing to get snuffed when you are on a congested link.

it's no big deal to me if my link is congested and what I see is my regular sustained rate, minus power boost. It becomes a problem when the congestion drops my downstream sustained rate (for example: 25Mbps) to something much lower (15-18Mbps or lower)... Upstream rates usually aren't affected.

I guess what I'm getting at is if Comcast is going to do away with Powerboost, maybe even offer higher rate plans in exchange, what they really need to make sure of is that their existing infrastructure can handle the loss of powerboost. I've always looked at powerboost as more of a congestion safe-guard than a customer speed-boost.

My issue on the business side is that when I originally signed a CONTRACT, the plan on my bill stated "w/ powerboost" and I was getting 60+/10 PB speeds. They then did this "wonderful" speed upgrade from 22/5 to 27/7 and now my PB speeds are 30/7. So they cut my download PB in half AND removed ALL upload PB.

Meanwhile, they have changed the plan listed on my bill at least three times since last June when I signed up. To me that right there is a breach of contract but unfortunately it would cost more to fight it than it is worth.

I agree that it sucks that you're being jerked around and that things seem in dispute of the contract.

However, I would trade 27/7 sustained over 22/5 sustained any day. even if the previous boosted rate was 60+/10.

It's all about the sustained rate... when you're yanking in big files, the sustained rate is all that matters..

edit: grammar

I ALWAYS got the 60+ down with powerboost and sustained of 22. So for me, I had the best of both as I had the 20 second or so really high rate then settled to 22Mbps. Something this cut my download time in half.

So when getting the sustained you are supposed to, even when yanking big files it is a benefit.

over time, 27/7Mbps sustained (30/7Mbps boosted) is quicker than 22/5Mbps sustained (60/10Mbps boosted).

losing the really high initial rate stinks, for sure, but trust me, if comcast offered you a choice between 22/5 (60/10) and 27/7 (30/7), you'd want to go with the 27/7.

i fail to see the deception. it was free.

Still seeing PowerBoost here.

"Cable operators appear to be slowly backing away from Comcast's PowerBoost technology now that they're offering speeds that make the technology irrelevant. "

I agree - speeds are more than sufficient now, the 10MB of PB speeds makes for cute speedtest results, and not much more.

I'm still wondering why they even bothered with capped powerboost if their plan was to eliminate it entirely, unless it was purely to test the water.

I am now wondering if the issues with capped powerboost on Cisco CMTS (this is still my working theory, but I haven't confirmed it) were part of the reason for eliminating it entirely or what. I guess we'll never know.

I need to dig up my original contract to see if mine mentioned powerboost.

*edit* And I think it's quite comical that for nearly 3 years I had "uncapped" powerboost (and now capped powerboost), yet EVERY time I have spoken to someone in business class or a tech who supports business (in person), they have all denied business class gets powerboost at all. *scratches head*

I was getting 110Mbps down on powerboost for almost the first year of my business class connection and i'm on starter.

Regular shaping kicks in after 100MB, so at 60mbps that's 13 seconds before you're back to reality.

Aside from the speedtest results not looking quite as sexy anymore, what's the real downside?

As pflog replied, you are correct that the 10Mb os pb we get now is pretty irrelavant. But the 40+ we used to get worked out pretty good. It has only been since the upgraade from 22/5 to 27/7 did the PB amount drop and the upload PB go away completely.
THe plan listed on my original bill listed is as, "w/ powerboost" and they have changed the name of the plan at least 3 times since my contract was signed. In my opinion changing the plan even once from what it was listed as on my bill is a breach of contract. However, at the corporate lawyer level, I am sure they will say it is not because the plan option checked is some like, "other high speed plan" which does not pin any name or speed levels.

I just found out that the speed upgrade stops being 'free' if you don't renew your contract for two years. Once you go off-contract, the free upgrade results in higher monthly fees.

If you act within 30 days of the change, you should be able to cancel without ETF. After 30 days you have accepted the new terms.

Awesome! Get rid of it.

I guess that it is relative to one's usage. For me, I would prefer a consistent modest speed boost over PB.

No problem and a non-issue. It hasn't been needed for some time.

It may vary by area, but the whole time PB has been here, it's been 30 MB worth on downstream, 10 MB on upstream. This has been with both residential and business. With my PB speeds being so high on business (70-93 Mbps peak), downstream usually runs out in 3-5 seconds.