Comcast Promises Huge Boost To Cable Upload Speeds By End of 2023 (arstechnica.com) 80
Comcast announced today that it has tested "the final technical component necessary to deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds" and said it's on track to deliver multi-gigabit download and upload speeds to at least some cable customers "before the end of 2023." The test using Broadcom equipment delivered download speeds of 6Gbps and uploads of 4Gbps, Comcast said. Ars Technica reports: Cable broadband lags far behind fiber-to-the-home in upload speeds, a frustration for many Internet users who lack access to fiber. Comcast and other cable companies have been promising a major upgrade to uploads for years without ever saying exactly when the improvement would reach customers. Comcast is starting to get a bit more specific -- although that "end of 2023" promise doesn't specify what percentage of customers will get the upgrade when it first rolls out. Upgrading Comcast's entire cable territory is expected to be a multi-year process.
"With this test completed, Comcast will launch live trials later this year, and will begin delivering 10G-powered multi-gig symmetrical services to customers before the end of 2023," Comcast said. (10G is a marketing term the cable industry uses to describe 10-gigabit-per-second speeds.) Comcast did not say what it will charge customers for multi-gigabit symmetrical service or whether the upgrade will be paired with any changes to the data cap imposed in most of Comcast's territory. Although the upgrade won't require replacing the cables going into customers' homes, getting all the right equipment in place throughout Comcast's network will take a few years.
"With this test completed, Comcast will launch live trials later this year, and will begin delivering 10G-powered multi-gig symmetrical services to customers before the end of 2023," Comcast said. (10G is a marketing term the cable industry uses to describe 10-gigabit-per-second speeds.) Comcast did not say what it will charge customers for multi-gigabit symmetrical service or whether the upgrade will be paired with any changes to the data cap imposed in most of Comcast's territory. Although the upgrade won't require replacing the cables going into customers' homes, getting all the right equipment in place throughout Comcast's network will take a few years.
Yay (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My torrent seeds never come close to even 20% of my upstream speed. And that's the combined total whatever I happen to want to watch and the fact that I seed every Debian torrent.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Comcast has the option of unlimited use for an extra $25-30 everywhere I've lived which brings them up to exactly what AT&T charges for superior symmetric 1G fiber without the Comcast bullshit when something breaks.
My new AT&T install glitched out shortly after I got it. The lady on the phone knew her shit and did a pro job troubleshooting then had tech out next day. He was here all day until he sorted it out. Been perfect since. (There was some old crap in place from a previous owner that was c
Re:Yay (Score:5, Interesting)
AT&T charges for superior symmetric 1G fiber
The problem here, of course, is that AT&T's footprint for FTTH service is fairly small (and grows incredibly slowly) whereas Comcast, for all their faults, will almost certainly have whatever is in their test markets today widely deployed to the vast majority of their footprint within a couple of years.
ILECs generally have little interest in building or expanding residential fiber networks, and cable wins here because their upgrade cycles are largely just node and CPE replacements that would happen anyway with a cable plant that's fully depreciated. FTTH, on the other hand, requires construction, and ILECs almost invariably want someone else to pay for that.
Re: (Score:2)
Fair point. I'd still take non-fiber 100M AT&T over any Comcast speed for the same reasons I said. It doesn't matter how fast it was sold as if it's broken all the time and customer service sucks.
Re: (Score:1)
That's interesting, I've had exactly the opposite experience with Comcast support; I live in Western WA, and the few times I've had to call in to their support I've gotten someone in Everett or Lynnwood (about a 90-minute drive from where I live). They've been professional people who knew what they were talking about and were able to help me right away. So, maybe with Comcast it depends on the tier you purchase, or where you live? I'm not sure, but apart from the upload speed being shit (have to pay for
Re: (Score:3)
FTTH, on the other hand, requires construction, and ILECs almost invariably want someone else to pay for that.
The telcos have been stealing our tax dollars for years to pay for that, and we still have virtually nothing to show for it.
Re: (Score:2)
And they're just going to continue doing that until someone actually holds them accountable.
They've already walked with $100B of public money and counting, why would they stop unless the feds are going to actually enforce something?
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know about you, but I don't have anything with a 10Gb NIC in my house.
This is just marketing bullshit by Comcast. "Hey look at us! We're the fastest!"
Comcast did not say what it will charge customers for multi-gigabit symmetrical service or whether the upgrade will be paired with any changes to the data cap imposed in most of Comcast's territory.
Translation: Unless you *REALLY REALLY* need this speed - and are willing to pay through the nose for it - fuck you very much.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course, I find a gigabit to be plenty. However, if it's a multigig uplink, that can mean multiple gigabit devices doing concurrent use.
And in some modern systems, they have gone to 2.5gb ethernet because.. well why not. It's true the appetite to go beyond gigabit over UTP hasn't driven rapid change like going from 10->100->1000 did, but eventually it has gotten to the point of "might as well go to 2.5gb", while still largely ignoring available faster technology.
Re: (Score:3)
I have 1 gbps internet connection now and a 10 gbps path between my modem and my PC. My torrent box has 2.5 gbps. Let me tell you that nothing even comes close to filling 1 gbps. I can usually push 6 or 7 gbps to my NAS, but never anything close to 1 gbps over the internet at large.
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't the bandwidth still going to be shared by every customer on a segment, so that you get 10 Gbps only if your dozens of nearest neighbors use no bandwidth at all?
Re: (Score:1)
That's true for anything. The only question is where is the block point? My neighborhood, the local company internal net or their uplink to backbone?
None of these connections have infinite bandwidth for any underlying technology.
Comcast has 2 critical problems: terrible asymmetric upload speeds and even worse customer service.
Re: (Score:2)
I love to bag on Comcast (oops, I meant Xfinity) as much as anyone, but my *anecdotal* experience is that if you get to tier 2 support, they hand shit pretty damn well. The key is to get beyond the tier 1 "script reader" to someone who knows their shit. The last two times I had to reset my cable card, it literally took 30 seconds for the tier one person to hand me off to the next tier, and less than 3 minutes to get it all programmed up (the reset was due to flaky as fuck Tivo hardware needing to be replace
Re: (Score:1)
I never figured out how to get to tier 2. I understand others may not have fiber options but I've always somehow lived in a place where AT&T was available going back 20+ years so I had Comcast for many years in the old days, then tried AT&T when it became available and never left. I have friends and family still on Comcast so I know anecdotally it still sucks.
My advice to everyone is if AT&T is in your area, even if the speed isn't multi-gig, which almost no one will use, go with that over Com
Re: (Score:2)
The good news about those two problems: they are both solved with money for plant upgrades, or money for solving customer service issues.
The real problem: Comcast is unwilling to reduce their net quarterly profits in order to pay for decent customer service. Apparently they are willing to begrudgingly pay for fixing the wide asymmetric gap between download and upload speeds through network upgrades though - probably because of requirements necessary to claim government subsidy, or else they wouldn't be doi
Re: (Score:2)
Same with FiOS. I have FiOS. There is one connection for download and one for upload. These two fibers are shared by the entire neighborhood (or group of homes).
It's just like the system used by cable modems but FiOS has enough bandwidth to handle the upload side, which, so far, cable TV companies have not been willing to dedicate. Tis not only due to bandwidth concerns but, more critically, the strength of the upload radio signal from the cable modem which does require cable plant upgrades. Fast downl
Re:Yay (Score:4, Informative)
They're dirt cheap if you know how to do it. All the "big" boxes on my lan are 10gb now. QLE8140 cards are cheap for some reason. Sometimes they get listed as FCoE which they are capable of but they do 10gb ethernet too. I was paying $15 each with a fiber transceiver. They don't even have a heatsink or need lots of airflow like the Intel cards. Linux finds them just fine with no tweaking and the Windows drivers work well too. The most expensive part was the switch with 4 SFP ports that can be changed from stacking ports to regular. An Aruba S2500 works great. Microtik makes a little 4 port 10gb switch with SFP ports and costs $120 or so.
Re: (Score:2)
I have one of the Microtik 4-port SFP 10Gbe switches, and it's great for making a high-bandwidth segment on the cheap - one fiber uplink to my 48-port gigabit switch, and then 3 10Gbe links available for things that can actually make use of it, such as my desktop and my NAS. And yes, eBay can be your friend for finding cheap 10Gbe cards - data centers and HPC installs are moving to 40Gbe or higher now, and shedding 10Gbe adapters like crazy.
Anyone else getting old Soviet vibes (Score:3, Funny)
"Comrades, soon we will all be living in our own houses and everyone will have a car!"
"That's nice and all, but, ya know, across the border, they already have that. And then some."
FTFY (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
* Upload speeds when attempting to cancel your service online will be restricted to one bit per year.
DOCSIS (Score:2)
Comcast moved everyone from DOCSIS 3 to 3.1 modems.
Will they insist on DOCSIS 4 for everyone?
Re: (Score:1)
It will be DOCSIS 3.11 for Workgroups before DOCSIS 95.
Comtastic (Score:1)
Konfucious say (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Don't under estimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes rumbling down the road" ..
Don't overestimate the understanding of kids today and...the fuck is a "station wagon"? "Magnetic" tape? Is that like for self-wrapping Christmas gifts, 'cause that would be insta-kewl...
Re: (Score:2)
the fuck is a "station wagon"?
These days they're called "SUVs", because "station wagons" weren't cool and definitely were not tall enough to intimidate other drivers.
Re: (Score:2)
the fuck is a "station wagon"?
These days they're called "SUVs", because "station wagons" weren't cool and definitely were not tall enough to intimidate other drivers.
Driver intimidation is a goal on American highways? And we wonder why auto insurance rates are obscene.
Death Race wasn't meant to be a documentary about morning commutes.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The station wagon has undergone an evolution - first to the minivan, and then to the "crossover" which is just a minivan with four doors on hinges, instead of two hinged doors and 1 or 2 sliding doors. And a slightly taller suspension.
Cancelling (Score:5, Interesting)
Five weeks later, I am still in a dispute with Comcast about cancelling my now unused service. Can't cancel through their online portal: over the phone or in person only.
Fuck Comcast.
Re: (Score:1)
However, thats DS. US, it's like 10 mpbs and has not changed.
Re: (Score:2)
I've mostly been in TimeWarner/Spectrum territory, and maybe I've been lucky, but I've had good speeds, low/no downtime, and what seem like reasonable prices.
At work right now I just got 694mbps down / 39.4mbps up on a spectrum business line. That's fine. Faster upload here would be nice.
At home they just did one of those doubling of speeds. I've gotten higher speeds than quoted for the plan on both upload/download everytime I've tested. I think it's 500/25? They have at least one or two tiers higher than m
Comcast is different now (Score:2)
When I signed up for Comcast many years ago, the promotional prices were okay but quickly became expensive after the 1-2 year promotional period. Then getting a new round of promotional prices involved multiple long phone calls trying to get a cooperative rep.
But all that has changed. Starting about two years ago, the "promotional" prices are available on the website. And the prices actually dropped substantially. I'm getting 400Mbps down for $50/month, and that's just the regular price. Never needed t
Re: Cancelling (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
I've canceled Comcast service a dozen times(*), and it's always been simple. I have cable boxes to return, so I just show up with them, and everything is canceled in five minutes. If you have no equipment and try to do it on the phone or online, they'll make it a hassle and try to talk you out of it, but when you show up with the equipment, they just take it.
(*) I have a summer rental property, and it makes more sense to terminate the service every fall and restart it than any option they'll offer to let
Re: (Score:3)
From what I'm reading some EU states are working on laws to make sure that services you can easily sign up for online, can be canceled just as easily online.
Re: (Score:2)
Reminds me of cancelling my shaw cable service in 2010. They wouldn't let me ship the equipment to them. I ended up driving to another suburb which had the only Shaw cable store that would take returns and cancelling in person.
Needless to say, I haven't used any shaw service since then.
Running scared (Score:4, Interesting)
Comcast is running scared. Fiber is getting rolled out to the suburbs and they are about to lose huge amounts of subscribers.
In my area fiber is being rolled out by a regional company with a great reputation. 1gb/1gb for $70 a month. Why would I bother with $100 a month for 1gb/20mb?
Re: (Score:2)
In my area fiber is being rolled out by a regional company with a great reputation. 1gb/1gb for $70 a month. Why would I bother with $100 a month for 1gb/20mb?
Perhaps for the same reason you would buy a Toyota over a Plymouth?
It's all fun bits and bytes until service goes down hard causing an entire household of internet addicts to start tweaking as you hear a *busy signal* on the other end of support from that "regional" (read: small) company...
Support matters, so make sure it's there when you need it. And yeah, I know. Plenty of the same can likely be said about Comcast too. This is why competition matters.
Re: (Score:1)
This comment quite misses it. Comcast's support is quite infamous, no, there is no reason to pay them more, unless they are your only option. Which they often have been, hence the support level and speeds.
Yeah, competition matters, and there is none (by law) in many parts of the US.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, competition matters, and there is none (by law) in many parts of the US.
That's not "law" that prevents competition.
That's corruption, and the local leaders citizens voted for, support it.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
If you're making an argument of superior service in regards to Comcast, you've clearly never been a Comcast subscriber. Their support is far worse than any other telco I've ever dealt with, and I used to be on Time Warner / Spectrum before moving away from Ohio, just to give the benchmark.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It started, IIRC, at about 50Mbps, and is now 350Mbps. Cost hasn't changed.
You must live somewhere they have meaningful competition. I don't think they do that in other places.
Re: (Score:2)
Comcast is running scared. Fiber is getting rolled out to the suburbs and they are about to lose huge amounts of subscribers.
In my area fiber is being rolled out by a regional company with a great reputation. 1gb/1gb for $70 a month. Why would I bother with $100 a month for 1gb/20mb?
Comcast has been a POS for so long that people will probably bail for good-but-slower service, so long as it's not comcast...
The moment I realized.... (Score:2)
Huge Price Too (Score:3)
Not to mention, they make you sign a contract that allows them to raise prices whenever they want, but they charge you a fee to cancel. (yes, they are the only provider in my town)
Re: (Score:2)
Curious--are you rural or something? I haven't seen speeds as slow as 30mbps offered in .... more than a decade with the exception of one rural office location that's still on DSL (it's awful).
Re: (Score:2)
Curious--are you rural or something? I haven't seen speeds as slow as 30mbps offered in .... more than a decade with the exception of one rural office location that's still on DSL (it's awful).
No. I took that tier to keep the cost down. They're the only provider in town, and it would have cost hundreds every month for something faster.
Re: (Score:2)
You're listing upstream speed, aren't you? I'm paying Comcast $90/month for 600 down / 20 up (which is actually 700 down / 24 up at my place). But symmetric gigabit (1 gig down / 1 gig up) is $299/month.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I already pay way too much for slow (30Mbps) service. They advertise these incredible speeds, but they come with incredibly high prices. Not to mention, they make you sign a contract that allows them to raise prices whenever they want, but they charge you a fee to cancel. (yes, they are the only provider in my town)
Then raise the issues with your local town officials. I'm not even sure the BBB would approve of fees for shutting down service or raise prices "whenever they want" within contract. Tends to invalidate the entire fucking point of signing a contract and locking in a price. Might as well get screwed with month-to-month rates with that fine print.
If they keep it up, then perhaps the local town officials will approve of a competitor. Like they should have done a decade ago.
running (Score:1)
Didn't think I'd see this for a long time... (Score:3)
Ever since the Internet has existed, most connectivity (and especially at-home connectivity) has always been the speed bottleneck.
Now that we're starting to see 2+Gbps home internet, that bottleneck is actually starting to shift to the hardware. Most devices people have on wireless couldn't push that kind of speed if they wanted to (even assuming the wireless itself could do it), and unless you have SSDs, it's also getting to be faster than the write speed of some disks.
Short of some kind of killer app, I can't really see myself needing more than the 500/500 I currently have for a long time (plus, my firewall hardware is limited to 500Mbps with all of the threat/IPS features turned on).
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not so sure. I have symmetric 150 up/down on fiber and, while the speed test sites say I get 150 up/down, the real world usage is another thing altogether: Amazon S3, online backup services, and CDNs (like those used for game console downloads) only give me around 10-15 Mb per connection.
I visited a family member in another city with 1 GB up/down and also experienced the same speeds.
I dare say that the bottlenecks are still on the web services, not the devices at the home/office.
Re: (Score:2)
Am already on symmetric 1/1gbps (tested and verified that I can get those speeds) for pass few years and I understand we are getting upgraded to 10/10gbps in the next 2-3 years. Current cost of about USD 20 per month. Some ISPs charge up to around 100USD for similar speeds, but with extra add ons such as TV channels, static IP and other assorted stuff.
Am in Singapore, and this is affordable for pretty much anyone here. And the government is the one pushing for 10gbps being the "standard" for homes in the ne
Left comcast after 15 years recently (Score:1)
Comcast simply got *too* expensive.
$95 a month for *minimal* service with no cable.
I replaced them for $50 per month (that's the *total* - not the before tax/before equipment rental fee price).
I did the same with Sirius a couple years back and then they offered me $98 per year, then $60 per year, and finally $33 per year with no automatic re-up at $240 per year. Turned out to *really* be $40 per year after surprise fees and taxes.
I expect comcast will start making me offers in 6 months. But the new servi
I wonder if this will improve on DOCSIS Latency (Score:1)
DOCSIS currently uses switched networking for downloads but uses a collision based networking for uploads. Meaning that your upload packet could collide with someone else's who shares the same upstream frequency as you. This results in a typical 13-20ms round trip on ping times to 1.1.1.1 with a 1-10ms jitter as compared to 2-6ms ping and virtually no jitter for those on FTTP type connection.
(Results based in the south west UK.)
You can sometimes improve this by rebooting your equipment in the hope that it w
Do they even listen to their customers? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Don't worry, Comcast is more than willing to let you pay an extra 30% in order to remove the cap...
Re: (Score:2)
Dont care cockmast (Score:2)
my situation with comcast was they would sell me affordable high speed internet only if I got some dumbass tv package, so my choices were pay 179$ a month for 200meg cause I got the tv package and all the fees and taxes that go along with that or pay 100$ a month for 20 meg service.
Now I pay 70$ for 300meg fiber and there's no fucking way I am going back
Lol yea. I remember being lied to for ~10 years (Score:2)
before cable internet service was available in my area. Considering I don't even get what I pay for, and they effectively have a monopoly in my area, I have 0 reason to believe this.
Comcast Promises Huge Boost To Cable Speeds BUT (Score:2)
Knowing Comcast, the new "2 Gig" service will... (Score:2)
Only allow for downloads at 2 Gb/s speeds. Upload speed will still be capped at some insanely low value like 25 Mb/s.
You'll only see these 2 Gig speeds when running Ookla Speedtest runs. Any downloads that take longer than that will quickly get throttled to speeds that you could get from a fast DSL connection.
They won't change the 1,200 GB data cap, so you'll just be able to hit your monthly limit faster before getting charged extra.
They'll also likely use the speed increase as an excuse to tack an addition
Most people don't need more than 1gbit internet (Score:2)
I'd be happy if Comcrap stopped going down (Score:2)
No fiber here (Score:2)
No fiber in my neighborhood. But they could use all that useless cable tv bandwidth.