Comcast Boosts its Bandwidth Speed

by Frank Jovine on 11/18/2008 in Business, Internet

Starting in December, Oregon and Southwest Washington Comcast customers will have a much-faster option called “Extreme 50 service” This service is capable of download speeds of up to 50 megabits per second.

Comcast calls it “wideband”, but its technical term is known as DOCSIS 3.0. This will be a dream for those who have a need to hog bandwidth. The only downfall that still bites you is the Comcast’s 250GB monthly download cap, which still remains in place. Extreme 50 customers should be able to download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes, Comcast says.

Aside from Verizon’s FiOS, it’ll be hard for home users to find Net service with comparable speed. Wideband won’t come cheap, though. Extreme 50, which offers up to 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream, costs a whopping $139.95 a month. Ultra, a relatively slower offering with 22 Mbps downstream, 5 Mbps upstream, is $62.95 a month.

It’s recommend that you shop Verizon FiOS, AT&T and Comcast before making any commitments.

TechJaws suggests getting FiOS which offers 50mbps down and 20 mbps up for $139.95 per month with phone service. The 20 mbps down and 5 mbps up for $52.99 per month with phone service.