Welcome to the Product Spotlight -- a continuing series of articles highlighting individual products commonly used by our members.

In The Spotlight: Comcast High Speed Internet broadband service
Previously:
· Verizon FiOS Spotlight
· HughesNet Satellite Spotlight
. Optimum Online Spotlight
See also: US Broadband Price Comparisons


Comcast is the largest cable company and the second largest Internet Service Provider in the United States, with services available in SC, MS, NY, VA, PA, WV, NM, NH, MA, MN, NJ, OR, WA, TN, UT, FL, CT, MD, CA, CO, MI, IN, AR, VT, GA and IL. You may check for availability in your local area here on the Comcast website.

Comcast offers professional installation and a self-install kit[FAQ] (if you are a Comcast cable customer already). You may buy your own modem, or Comcast will provide one to you, although you must add an additional $3.00/month to your bill for modem rental. Comcast notes that self-installation may not be available in all areas. Be sure to consult Comcast's List of Approved Modems to determine if the modem you wish to purchase is supported by the service. Approved Modems are modems that meet certain specifications and standards and are supported for firmware updates. Modems with similar specifications and standards that are not on the list will normally work. The only difference is that they will not receive firmware updates.

You may also want to check out this FAQ for members' opinions on the best modem and routers for use with Comcast HSI.


The pie chart above (click to enlarge) is a recent forum survey and shows that the Motorola SB5100 appears to be the most popular modem in use by Comcast HSI customers.
*These opinions are NOT endorsed by Comcast in any way, shape or form.

Installation, both professional and self-install, seem to go smoothly in most cases, according to reviews -- although there are the occasional less-than-stellar installs[review] that occur with all services. From ordering the service to live connection averages about 5 days, but can take as long as 30 days in some instances.

Overall Comcast cable is a good product, but their fee's and charges are high considering the amount of customers they provide for. It's a monopoly. Bring more companies in and make them drop their price. »Review of Comcast Formerly ATT Broadband by SOAR

As defined by our Comcast High Speed Internet (HSI) FAQ, "A walled garden refers to a browsing environment that controls the information and websites the user is able to access. Comcast will provide the walledgarden.cfg file to your modem until the system has validated it through a process called provisioning[FAQ]. With that configuration, the system restricts your ability to access other resources. If your modem receives the 'walled garden' configuration file no matter what website you type in, the DNS server will redirect you to the Self Provisioning page."

Like many other providers, Comcast HSI uses the MAC number of the cable modem to identify the user to the system. To tell Comcast that a particular modem is for your account, the Comcast system must be told about your modem, so that the modem can be served by the cable system. The cable system will download a configuration file to your modem based on the class of service you are subscribed to. This will need to be done if you are a new customer, or if you switch to a different modem. If you have a deluxe install, the installer normally does this for you.

When using the Comcast-provided software to activate your Comcast HSI service, your browser and other programs may be "branded," meaning Comcast's logo and such will appear instead of, for example, Microsoft's logo in IE. The software also installs some other non-essential programs. Many customers do not like "branding" or anything else being installed on their computers that they do not want. There are ways to remove Comcast's branding after installation and provisioning, which are detailed in our Comcast HSI FAQ. There are also a few ways around Comcast's branding after provisioning discussed here[forum post] in our Comcast HSI forum.

It is noted in our Comcast HSI FAQ that you do not need to install Comcast's software in order to access the Internet. Comcast's service only requires that your computer's NIC adapter be configured to utilize the TCP/IP protocol, using DHCP settings. The FAQ detailing how to set up your service without using Comcast's software can be found here[FAQ]. It is noted in the FAQ that "These results may be generic in nature, or specific to a certain network such as a university, but should provide a rough guide to configuring DHCP for your machine."


There are currently a total of seven different price/speed tiers available through Comcast, but chances are you will only have some of them available to you. Although prices are, with minor regional variances, fairly consistent across the board, available speed tiers vary depending on your area and the competition in it.

Comcast does not list all available speeds and prices on their website. However, there is an unofficial compilation[FAQ] based on information gathered in our Comcast HSI forum and various other sources of all the tiers and speeds known to be available in different areas in our Comcast HSI FAQ.

If you currently do not subscribe to any Comcast Cable TV or Comcast Digital Phone services, you will have the following options for Comcast HSI available to you:

•Economy: 384 kbps / 384 kbps : $39.95 ( not available for new subscription )
•Performance Lite: 4000 kbps / 384 kbps : $42.95
•Performance: 6000 kbps / 384 kbps : $59.95
•Performance: 6000 kbps / 768 kbps : $59.95 ( select areas )
•Performance Plus: 8000 kbps / 768 kbps : $67.95
•Blast!: 16000 kbps / 1000 kbps : $67.95 ( select areas )
•Blast!: 16000 kbps / 2000 kbps : $67.95 ( select areas )

If you currently subscribe to any Comcast Cable TV or Comcast Digital Phone services, the following HSI options are available to you:

•Economy: 384 kbps / 384 kbps : $29.95 ( not available for new subscription )
•Performance: 6000 kbps / 384 kbps : $42.95
•Performance: 6000 kbps / 768 kbps : $42.95 ( select areas )
•Performance Plus: 8000 kbps / 768 kbps : $52.95
•Blast!: 16000 kbps / 1000 kbps : $52.95 ( select areas )
•Blast!: 16000 kbps / 2000 kbps : $52.95 ( select areas )

As mentioned earlier, add $3.00 to any tier if you are renting a modem from Comcast. The cableco also offers introductory rates for triple play bundles based on local competition and additional services. Comcast will lock customers in at these rates if you sign a two-year contract[forum post]. The Blast! tier seems to be available mainly where Comcast is in competition with Verizon's FiOS service. You can see if Blast! may be available in your area by reading this thread in our Comcast HSI forum.


Comcast recently introduced its patent pending PowerBoost "speed enhancement"[FAQ]. PowerBoost is not a permanent speed upgrade. It is a Comcast-developed technology that leverages an additional capacity which is already built into Comcast's advanced network. PowerBoost technology delivers bursts of 12 to 16 Mbit/s downstream and 1 to 2 Mbit/s upstream with their 6 and 8 Mbit/s packages, respectively. A PowerBoost burst will normally last as long as the 10MB of a file download on Comcast's 6Mbps service and as long as 5MB of a file upload. A good discussion on PowerBoost can be found here[forum post] in our Comcast HSI forum. You can also check to see where Upload PowerBoost is available here[forum post].

Comcast PowerBoost technology is compatible with DOCSIS 1.1 cable modems and above and with Comcast certified home networking devices and Comcast voice eMTAs (combination modem and phone adapter with battery backup). If your area is PowerBoost-enabled and you cannot get the enhancement because of an older modem, Comcast will exchange your old modem for a newer one free of charge if you rent a modem from them. Customers can visit their local Comcast office or contact 1-800-COMCAST to make arrangements for their modem.

Comcast executives have also been chatting up the deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 as the solution to combat competition put forth by FiOS, creating a lot of buzz with its demonstration at the NTCA Cable Show in May of DOCSIS 3.0 with sustained downstream speeds hovering around 150Mbps, 25 times as fast as the operator’s standard 6-mbps offering today. Comcast has brushed off FiOS competition by noting Comcast's upgrade path will be significantly cheaper than the rollout of FiOS. The cableco hasn’t specified where or when it expects to first deploy DOCSIS 3.0, but company executives have said they plan to initiate trials later this year when equipment vendors deliver the first products built to the standard. Commercial rollouts could happen in 2008. Whether DOCSIS 3.0 will keep Comcast and cable in general competitive with the telcos remains to be seen. Recently, at least one reporter, testing Comcast's service against AT&T's U-Verse, picked Comcast's service as superior.

Navigating their tech support tree is extremely frustrating, I couldn't believe it at first. After thinking about this for a long time, my only conclusion is that they've designed it that way purposely.. »Review of Comcast by melt2003

Although it is granted that customer service and tech support is always somewhat hit or miss with many providers, there seems to be more than the average amount of negative comments about Comcast's customer service and tech support. Many comments in our Comcast HSI reviews read something along these lines:

"In March I began experiencing dreadful download speeds in the evening (averaging around .5 Mb/s from 7PM to Midnight) and have been getting the go-around with Comcast ever since. Customer support is either untrained/unknowledgeable or could care less (I prefer to lean towards untrained/unknowledgeable) and getting tech support on site during the times I have issues is like pulling teeth with a hammer."

Navigating their tech support tree is extremely frustrating, I couldn't believe it at first. After thinking about this for a long time, my only conclusion is that they've designed it that way purposely. This is a multi-billion dollar corporation, I cannot believe that everything they do isn't purposely designed. So be prepared to be extremely frustrated (mad as hell) if you have to deal with tech support."

Comcast also has the dubious honor of becoming, perhaps, the posterchild for bad and/or uncaring customer service and tech support due to some now infamous footage shot by a Comcast customer of a field tech who decided to take a snooze while changing out a modem.


Comcast HSI's Terms of Service (ToS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) are pretty much standard for the industry. You cannot run a server on any Comcast residential account for the purpose of external usage. This includes FTP, HTTP, POP3/SMTP, telnet or any other service that users can access via the Internet. Comcast used to disallow VPN through its residential services, but recently changed this policy and now allows all tiers to use VPN.

Most frustrating of all - and the reason for my anger with this company - is their ambiguous limitations. They say that if I use "too much" bandwidth again, they will terminate me for a year. However, they will not tell me how much is "too much". They will not tell me how much I need to reduce my usage by. They simply say "you are using too much". »Review of Comcast by Hashmap

It is of interest to note a part of Comcast's AUP that states:

"Comcast may provide versions of the Service with different speeds and bandwidth usage limitations, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans. You shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, disrupt, degrade, or impede Comcast's ability to deliver and provide the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

You further agree to comply with all Comcast network, bandwidth, and data storage and usage limitations. You shall ensure that your bandwidth consumption using the Service does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations, that is a violation of this Policy. In such cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service with higher bandwidth usage limitations if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher bandwidth consumption levels."

In other words, if you use (in Comcast's opinion) too much bandwidth, your service may be suspended or terminated at Comcast's discretion. However, Comcast never reveals just what it considers 'too much'. It has been noted[FAQ] in our Comcast HSI FAQ that Comcast does enforce this rather vague policy, and will not hesitate to send letters or contact customers threatening termination of service[review]:

"The biggest gripe I have with them is that I have the more expensive 8mbps/768kbps (versus the slightly cheaper 6mbps/376kbps), but after two years of service here they recently contacted me to say I was using too much bandwidth and would be terminated for an entire year if it happened again.

Most frustrating of all - and the reason for my anger with this company - is their ambiguous limitations. They say that if I use "too much" bandwidth again, they will terminate me for a year. However, they will not tell me how much is "too much". They will not tell me how much I need to reduce my usage by. They simply say "you are using too much."



So how does Comcast HSI measure up? According to over 4,000 reviews of the service left here, the majority of customers are satisfied with Comcast's broadband service. Our statistics indicate customer satisfaction has hovered at around 70% over three years[review], resulting in a Bronze Star Rating[FAQ], as indicated by the graph pictured on the left (click to enlarge).

Comcast HSI's service is decent when it is running properly. Like most large cable providers, it does suffer some reliability and connectivity issues in some areas due to overloaded and oversold nodes resulting in slowdowns during peak usage hours. Several reviews also note some strange routing[review] that results in sometimes high latency.

Where Comcast HSI really loses out is in its pricing. Besides deficient tech support, many reviews cite Comcast's prices vs. speeds[review] (and the fact that Comcast HSI is usually the only game in town for fast Internet) as their biggest gripe. Our ratings chart plays this out. Even though Comcast is trying to compete with its Blast! offering and PowerBoost technology while chatting up a DOCSIS 3.0 future, Verizon FiOS is the better deal right now if it is available in your area. Verizon's middle speed offering and best deal offers 15Mbps download/2Mbps upload for $57.99 a month vs. Comcast's average offering of 6000 - 8000 Kbps download/384 - 768 Kbps upload for $59.95 - $67.95. Verizon's middle package is still a better deal than even Blast! (if it is offered in your area), which gives you 16000Kbps download/1000 - 2000Kbps upload for $67.95.

The bottom line is that Comcast HSI (when working properly) is a decent but somewhat pricey service that needs to rethink its broadband offerings, both speed and price-wise, if it is to remain competitive with the telcos in the future.



Our Resources
· Comcast HSI FAQ
· Comcast HSI Forum
· Comcast HSI Recent Reviews
. Provider Ratings Chart
Other Resources
· Comcast HSI Home Page
. CableLabs DOCSIS Specifications