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Call me skeptical. But according to a Comcast spokesperson, customers with the Internet "Blast!" package will now have double the speed, from 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps. For those that aren't in the know, that's a lot of extra horsepower.
"The changes will go into effect [around March 4]," said Comcast Corporate Communications Director Angelynne Amores.
With the extra speed, you could download a 1 gigabyte file in about 3 to 4 minutes. Customers will not incur any cost for the added speeds.
Specifically, the "Blast!" plan is increasing download speeds from up to 25 Mbps to speeds up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds from up to 4 Mbps to up to 10 Mbps, while "Extreme" 50 customers will receive download speeds up to 105 Mbps (formerly 50 Mbps) and upload speeds up to 20 Mbps (formerly 15 Mbps). The Performance plan is increasing to speeds up to (20 or 25) Mbps from 15 Mbps downstream and to (4 or 5) Mbps from 2 Mbps upstream.
Note: To activate the new speeds when they become available, customers just need to re-start their cable modems. To check your Internet speed I recommend SpeedTest.net.
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Michael
1:20 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I'm curious, why call it a surprising move, and indicate that you're skeptical?
Comcast internet speeds in the Chicago area have increased numerous times over the past ten years. In 2002 the download speed was about 1.5Mbps, in 2004 it was about 3Mbps, and by 2008 it was about 6Mbps. In 2009 it was increased to 12Mbps, and then increased again to 15Mbps a year or so ago.
Please note that these speeds I'm referring to are for the same performance tier that cost about $43/mo (unbundled) from early on until just a couple years ago, when prices unfortunately began going up.
In recent years Comcast has been upgrading their network to the much more advanced DOCSIS 3 technology that allows them to offer dramatically greater amounts of bandwidth.
George Slefo
2:27 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
@ Michael -
I own my own DOC 3 modem and the post is under "opinion" because I am skeptical to see if the speeds will in fact be delivered. Comcast has broken promises before (at least to me) so forgive my skepticism. I do not want to mislead my readers; the speeds have yet to be delivered (just ran a test before posting this comment).
Do you work for Comcast or represent them? If not, then thank you for the detailed history! Hopefully, our community will get the increased speeds because I honestly think that would be awesome. =)
Best,
George
Michael
2:01 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Hi George,
Thanks for the clarification.
You may be interested in this thread at the Comcast forum on DSL Reports discussing the Chicago speed changes:
https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r28025377-Speed-Chicago-speed-changes
I have no relationship with Comcast other than having been a long time home Comcast internet customer (from the time they took over AT&T Broadband cable internet), and the Skokie company for which I work uses Comcast Business Class internet.
The brief history of Comcast speed upgrades I presented is mostly from my own personal experience. I looked for any official Comcast speed history for the Chicago area to corroborate my own records and recollection, but came up empty.
Truly, I hold no special opinion of Comcast and have been disappointed by them also at times. Their history of upgrading available speeds hasn't been an area in which they've disappointed, in my opinion, but their price increases have certainly been so. Last year my wife and I switched our ISP from Comcast to RCN due to lower cost (>$60/mo Comcast, $40/mo RCN) AND higher performance (15Mbps Comcast, 25Mbps RCN). In speaking with Comcast (including their Retention Department) nobody was able to offer even close to a competitive price and they seemed apathetic about losing us as a customer.
It's unfortunate that Comcast has a near monopoly on high speed cable internet service in the Chicago area. If there was more competition it would be better for all of us consumers.
J
2:41 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
Has your speed gone up yet George?
George Slefo
3:15 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
Just checked, and no speed boost yet.
J
3:33 pm on Wednesday, March 20, 2013
FYI.
Tonight on WTTW's "Chicago Tonight": Why your Internet is so slow – and expensive.
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2013/03/20/captive-audience