Comcast Lifts Uploads To 5Mbps Amid Complaints Its Low-Income Plan Is Too Slow (arstechnica.com) 24
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast is doubling download speeds and increasing upload speeds for the $10-per-month Internet Essentials plan that it sells to low-income subscribers. Comcast had faced criticism for keeping the plan's speeds at 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up during the pandemic, though even those speeds were an increase from the 15Mbps/2Mbps offered until March 2020. In today's announcement, Comcast said it is "doubling the program's Internet download speed to 50Mbps and increasing the upstream speed to 5Mbps for all new and existing customers at no additional cost." The speed upgrade "will be rolled out nationally beginning March 1," Comcast said.
Low-income users still face Comcast's 1.2TB data cap, which adds $10 to a monthly bill for each additional block of 50GB. But data-cap overage charges are capped at $30 per month for Internet Essentials subscribers, while the extra charges can go up to $100 for other customers. Information on how to qualify for Internet Essentials is available here. The new speed increase "is the sixth time in 10 years that Comcast has increased broadband speeds for Internet Essentials customers while keeping the cost of the service at $9.95 a month," the company said.
The report notes that Comcast has been offering two months free to new Internet Essentials customers ever since the pandemic started, and it plans on keeping that deal open until June 30, 2021.
Low-income users still face Comcast's 1.2TB data cap, which adds $10 to a monthly bill for each additional block of 50GB. But data-cap overage charges are capped at $30 per month for Internet Essentials subscribers, while the extra charges can go up to $100 for other customers. Information on how to qualify for Internet Essentials is available here. The new speed increase "is the sixth time in 10 years that Comcast has increased broadband speeds for Internet Essentials customers while keeping the cost of the service at $9.95 a month," the company said.
The report notes that Comcast has been offering two months free to new Internet Essentials customers ever since the pandemic started, and it plans on keeping that deal open until June 30, 2021.
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What about customers stuck paying full price? (Score:2)
Re: What about customers stuck paying full price? (Score:3)
With all the remote learning the governors should have, when declaring states of emergency and banning price gouging, declared minimum upload speeds increased to 10Mbps during the crisis as long as their tech allows for it. DSL, obviously cannot, but cable clearly can. 10Mbps is barely enough for 2 kids and a parent to simultaneously Zoom conference. The remote classroom requires seeing and hearing the kids in order to count as attending classes. But forcing people into 2mb barely covers audio and ack packe
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Why do you need 720p full framerate video if the goal is just to verify the kids are in attendance? Low resolution low framerate will do, maybe 360p and 10fps.
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Re: What about customers stuck paying full price? (Score:2)
2 kids and a parent will soak it up
F Comcast (Score:4, Insightful)
They will do the bare minimum to stay out of court. Meanwhile, they will lobby extensively to put their thumb on the scales.
Nothing like a monthly reminder (or more often when they're spooked) in your inbox asking if you'd like to join their in your face employee lobbying effort for whatever they want the FCC or justice department to do that day of the week.
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Eastern MA here. I'm dumping them this month.
100/25 for almost $80 *and* now, a $3 increase and data cap
vs
FIOS - 200/200 for $40 and no data caps.
Sorry, Comcast, you're not so "Comcastic" // yes, I realise I'm very lucky to have an option.
Sticker shock. (Score:2)
Low-income users still face Comcast's 1.2TB data cap, which adds $10 to a monthly bill for each additional block of 50GB. But data-cap overage charges are capped at $30 per month for Internet Essentials subscribers, while the extra charges can go up to $100 for other customers. Information on how to qualify for Internet Essentials is available here.
One of the reasons some routers come with a monitoring and alert feature. You can even chose what the router does in that case. Never mind logging consumption per a month if one wants.
Thereby making it easier... (Score:2)
...for those customers to hit their monthly caps.
Be careful what you wish for!
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Unlike the speed increases with 5G, there is actually a point to this upgrade. With the previous 2 megabits upload you could run into disruptions video conferencing if you have more than 1 person using it at a time. 5 megabits gives you enough headroom where it's not likely to happen unless there's something more extreme/unusual going on.
The 1.2 TB cap is the same as all the other Comcast customers have as of last month. Customers with 10x the ul/dl speed of the Essentials plan... those are the ones most li
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As for the 1.2TB cap, the competition (AT&T) has a 1TB cap for most FTTN services. Very low-speed DSL or DSL-equivalent (6mbps) services have an even smaller cap (still 250GB?). While I've never reached my 1TB cap (may have reached 1/2 of it when the kid was visiting for a while), an extra 200GB of headroom would always be useful; I might want to watch a couple of movies in a month someday. Is there any effective way to lobby AT&T for an increase? Or is it more likely that Comcast would lower its ca
$10 for 1.2TB? (Score:1)
25 for $10? (Score:2)
Just Wait (Score:2)
If / when Starlink becomes a reality, Comcast will do all sorts of things it has said it can't or won't do in regards to pricing and speeds.
It's amazing what happens when you actually have competition to deal with.
Distraction from data caps (Score:2)
While this is nice for low customers. This is nothing but a feel good distraction, from the data caps. Which is the real issue and will make them millions...
Low income threshold (Score:1)
Even for paying customers... (Score:2)
...Comcast's uplink sucks. Had to call them for support a few weeks ago, and the Indian drone spent more time trying to upsell me because in her mind 300mbs download isn't enough for one person and a bunch of smart devices. Me: "Don't you realize your shitty 10mbs uplink is a problem, not the download speed?" Any time they try and sell me on anything "cloud" I laugh at them: "Yeah, it's great til you have to SEND anything there."
Grrr, I hate that they have a monopoly where I am.
What are the qualifications for the Basic plan? (Score:2)
And when does Comcast just change your bill to something more expensive?
As for performance, it makes me want to move to Comcast Basic! Paying almost $70/mo for AT&T 50/10. If I could get 50/5 (5 up is still marginally enough for a decent Zoom session) for $10/mo, it might almost be worth paying Comcast the $2-3K they want to run a wire across the street to my house.
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OK, ninja'd of course. If the "low income" qualification is below $20K, as it seems from comments above, it's irrelevant in California where even the homeless may come close to that. Oh well. Normal Comcast 50/5 around here is about the same price as AT&T 50/10.