Comcast announced yesterday that it had completed upgrades to its advanced fiber-optic network serving its New Castle, Del., system – doubling Internet speeds to the average customer at no additional cost, as well as rolling out two tiers of DOCSIS 3.0-enabled services.
Comcast’s DOCSIS 3.0 tiers are Extreme 50 and Ultra. Extreme features download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and upstream speeds of 10 Mbps for $139.95 per month. Ultra clocks in with 22 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up at a cost of $62.95 per month. Business customers will also have access to the new wideband services. Customers can sign up for the Deluxe 50 Mbps / 10 Mbps tier for $189.95 per month.
With the upgrades, most customers in New Castle are now seeing download speeds of up to 15 Mbps. Also, the company is introducing new premium speed tiers of 50 Mbps and 22 Mbps.
Comcast said the majority of customers take its “Performance” tier of service, which delivers 6 Mbps download / 1 Mbps upload speeds. With the upgrade, they have seen their speeds double to 12 Mbps down / 2 Mbps up; with PowerBoost technology, speeds are up to 15 Mbps on downloads. Customers who subscribe to the “Performance Plus” service have increased to 16 Mbps / 2 Mbps from 8 Mbps / 2 Mbps. With PowerBoost, speeds reach up to 20 Mbps on downloads.
The speed increase was enabled by Comcast’s upgrade from broadband to wideband technology and the launch of next-generation DOCSIS 3.0.
“Wideband is a game-changer. With wideband running over our next-generation fiber-optic network, we can greatly enhance our customers’ online experience immediately. And these speeds are only a preview of what’s to come – wideband will provide the capability of delivering dramatically faster speeds in excess of 160 Mbps in the future,” said Amy Smith, senior vice president of Comcast’s Freedom Region. “Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to offer more speed to more customers than any other U.S. Internet service provider.”
Comcast plans on having its DOCSIS 3.0-enabled data service in 30 million homes and businesses by the end of the year. The number of homes represents 65 percent of Comcast’s footprint.
Comcast’s DOCSIS 3.0 speeds have already been launched in 12 major markets, including the Twin Cities, the Boston metropolitan region, parts of southern New Hampshire, the Philadelphia metropolitan area, parts of New Jersey, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Ind., Portland, Ore., Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this week (story here).
Comcast said it will launch additional new markets in the weeks and months ahead.
