Comcast has announced plans to make the Internet faster for more than 20 million of its customers.
“The country’s largest gigabit network is boosting the speeds of its most popular plans starting this week, offering customers an even better connectivity experience while simultaneously streaming the latest 4K blockbusters, online games, video conferencing and more. With this latest round of speed increases, Xfinity continues to deliver unprecedented value compared to other providers — including significantly faster speeds and better reliability than mobile and 5G home internet,” Comcast said this week.
It follows the company’s recent network deployment.
According to Comcast, speeds change differently depending on what plan the user has.
The Performance Starter/Connect plan goes from 50Mbps to 75Mbps, while the Performance/Connect More plan moves from 100Mbps to 200Mbps. The “Performance Pro/Fast” will increase from 300 Mbit/s to 400 Mbit/s. Blast/Superfast goes from 600Mbps to 800Mbps, while Extreme Pro/Gigabit (formerly Ultrafast) goes from 900Mbps to 1Gbps.
“The number of connected devices in Xfinity homes has skyrocketed 12-fold since 2018, and the need for fast, reliable, and secure internet will continue to grow,” said Bill Connors, president of Xfinity, Comcast Cable, in the announcement. “That’s why Xfinity is increasing speed for most of our customers across the country today.”
As Engadget noted, several of Comcast’s competitors have also seen increasing speeds in recent months. Both AT&T and Google Fiber recently announced speed upgrades. The site also noted that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed changing the definition of minimum broadband speeds. This standard has been fixed at 25/3 Mbps since 2015.
The FCC’s Notice of Inquiry proposes raising the national broadband standard to 100 megabits per second download and twenty megabits per second upload and “discusses a body of evidence supporting that standard, including requirements for new ones.” Networks funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act.”
“The needs of internet users long ago exceeded the FCC’s 25/3 speed metric, especially during a global health pandemic that has shifted so much life to the internet,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a proposed amendment to the July. “Not only is the 25/3 metric outdated, it is harmful because it obscures the extent to which low-income neighborhoods and rural communities are being left behind and left offline. That’s why we need to raise the standard for minimum broadband speeds now, while aiming for even higher goals for the future, because we need to aim big if we want everyone, everywhere, to have a fair shot at 21st century success.”
Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The national interest, is a journalist, essayist, and film critic who also writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. Stephen, co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
Image: Reuters.
