Comcast Launches Superfast Internet To Fight FiOS 209
jfruh writes "Comcast customers who dream of superfast download speeds drooled when they heard the company would be offering 305 Mbps service. There's only one catch: the high speeds are only available in markets where the cable giant is going head-to-head with Verizon's FiOS service. It seems that competition really does improve service quality when it comes to ISPs."
so WTF do you need this for? (Score:4, Interesting)
i'm at 10-15 now and going down to 5 once i cancel cable and go a la carte cable internet. 3-5 megabits is enough to stream netflix and amazon.
a lot cheaper to let steam update at night than to pay for super fast internet too
Of course... (Score:5, Interesting)
Amazing what a little competition can do. It was never about them being unable to bring people these speeds, or it being cost prohibitive...they just don't want to spend the fucking money until they're losing more customers than they're signing up in a given quarter. I've had techs from my ISP, Charter Communications, basically tell me that my local node is way oversaturated due to this being a very densely populated area, and that the main hardware is complete crap, but that corporate isn't going to upgrade until the amount they're spending on service calls exceeds the cost of upgrading the node. You know it's fucked up when the company's own fucking techs are exasperated enough to start telling customers shit like that...
Re:so WTF do you need this for? (Score:3, Interesting)
i'm at 10-15 now and going down to 5 once i cancel cable and go a la carte cable internet. 3-5 megabits is enough to stream netflix and amazon.
a lot cheaper to let steam update at night than to pay for super fast internet too
It depends on what you do with your home internet. If all you do is some Netflix streaming and web surfing then 3-5 down is plenty and your upload speed really won't matter. I work from home myself so I typically get the fastest internet speed I can. I don't need super fast internet all the time, but when I'm moving a lot of data between my home office and the main office I can see the difference and it affects my working day. More-so with upload speed than download speed. I've currently got a 50/5 package and it's great. I don't really need the crazy high download speeds, but I do notice the increase in upload speed.
It's still comcast... (Score:0, Interesting)
Anyone who's actually used comcast knows how crappy they are when it comes to actually delivering.
Re:Yeah, right... (Score:5, Interesting)
Subject to their terms of service - and whims. And they will reinstate the caps after the suckers sign on for a few years. Come on, we've seen this so many times now, we know how the heroin trade works. First shot is free, then the price goes up forever after they are the only game(s) in town.
Drooled? (Score:4, Interesting)
What legal purpose would 300 Mbps to the household serve for most people? I am a FIOS customer, but I have it provisioned at the minimum bandwidth for cost reasons. Nevertheless, I can work from home, my wife and kid can do Netflix (two different tvs) all at the same time, and I can torrent the latest version of CentOS in less time than it takes to hunt up a disc to burn it to. These monstrous bandwidths are, for an overwhelming percentage of the population (or even an overwhelming percentage of geeks) only for bragging rights. Not to actually use. It's just a faster way to slam up against Comcast throttling.
I was a charter customer of FIOS. What it buys me is (1) investing in a higher tech medium which I still believe is the wave of the future (fiber to the home) and (2) (this is important) I don't have to deal with Comcast customer support.
And... I have to add (3) it's fun to watch the Comcast monthly door-to-door salesperson go all wonky when we tell them we're sticking with FIOS. Although, I haven't seen him since I reported him for yelling at my wife the last time.
Ahh, Comcast. If any company deserved to by purchased and dismantled, it would be you.