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Comcast launches faster Internet plans, but usage cap remains
Communications provider Comcast on Wednesday announced two new tiers of service for heavy residential downloaders, along with speed upgrades for subscribers of its existing services.
The two new plans, dubbed "Extreme" and "Ultra" clock in at 50 and 22 Mbps of downstream respectively and 10 and 5 Mbps of upstream. Comparatively, customers of Comcast's "performance" plans are getting a big jump from 8 to 16 Mbps on the downspeed, however, upload performance remains at 2 Mbps.
The speed bumps, which are being rolled out to 10 major markets between now and next year come at a cost. The somewhat confusingly named Extreme and Ultra tiers come in at $139.95 and $62.95 a month, amounting to an annual cost close to $1,700 a year for subscribers of the Extreme--nearly three times that of Comcast's standard monthly residential service.
Alongside these residential tiers, Comcast is also introducing a new business tier called "Premium," which comes in at 22/5 Mbps down/up for $99.95 a month, as well as beefing up its Deluxe tier to match the Ultra plan at 50/10 Mbps down/up for $189.95 a month. Meanwhile, the "Starter" business tier has received a similar speed bump to that of the residential plans, moving from 6 to 12 Mbps.
So quickly--to sum up the new and updated plans:
Residential services
(new) Extreme 50 (50/10 Mbps down/up) - $139.95/month
(new) Ultra (22/5 Mbps down/up) - $62.95/month
Performance Plus (16/2 Mbps down/up) $52.95/month
Performance (12/2 Mbps down/up) - $42.95/month
Business services
Deluxe 50 (50/10 Mbps down/up) - $189.95/month
(new) Premium (22/5 Mbps down/up) - $99.95/month
Starter (12/2 Mbps down/up) - Price unknown
Cost aside, what may be the most controversial aspect of this speed bump is that subscribers of the residential plans will get no higher cap over the 250GB monthly limit which was instated earlier this October. Comcast's own release prides the new Extreme plan on letting customers "download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter of seconds." Do the math and you'll see that an extreme subscriber could easily blow past the 250 GB cap in a matter of hours.
Comcast's PR representative Charlie Douglas tells me the cap will remain in place for residential customers, although for right now business customers are free to go over that. Any potential residential customers who think they may go over, the slightly more expensive business tiers might offer a safe haven from having your heavy bandwidth habit limited.
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
If Comcast cannot support that, then Comcast needs to start upgrading their networks, especially the 'last mile' to the homes.
Do you believe Comcast or the people shouting at Comcast?!?
I also note that there is no cheaper plan than the current residential plan. Didn't people say they would pay for a cheaper plan with lower speed. How come they didn't offer anything like that? No surprises here.
And DAMN to the business tiers - when I called them about the possibility of a business package, they told me it was $100/month for a 6/1 business line. Now that same $100 is 22/5! Nice!
The bandwidth usage cap in essence violates net neutrality which is a not so hidden agenda. If you use Comcast VOIP your phone bandwidth will not count towards the cap but Vonage will! Now imagine HD streaming provided by Comcast which of course will not be counted towards the cap yet other competitor's bandwidth streams will certainly be. The not so subtle effect is to steer consumers toward the Comcast content. This is the actual goal of these over reaching ISP's, to tilt the table of competition in their direction especially as they expand into content and advertising niches to reap greater profits.
I would be interested in the 22/5 "Ultra" plan($62/month), were it not for the fact that Comcast requires one to rent a DOCSIS 3.0 modem for $3/month, making the real monthly cost $65/month (despite the fact that the 22/5 speeds could easily be handled by DOCSIS 2.0 modems). I have not been able to find a DOCSIS 3.0 modem that I can buy.
So this begs the question: is there really that much of a real advantage to 16/2 over 12/2 to justify that $10 premium? I think not. In fact, my "premium" plan used to be 6, 8, 12, and now 16 (as it's been increased over the years). I think the smart course of action will be to downgrade to 12/2 and save $10 on my already ridiculously overpriced cable bill. Thanks Comcast!
We get up to 24mb / 2.5mb (Dn/Up) for around $45/mo with no caps on DSL. Cable is going up to 50mb/8mb (Dn/Up) within the next few months, and I bet the price will beat comcast's plans!
I seriously don't understand why ISP's have to have caps. Surely a half hour slow down in busy periods if you are one of the top 1% of bandwidth hogs should be enough?
Anyone who doesn't understand my statement should simple go back to 1990. Eighteen years ago when we had other means of internet access. Find out what T1, and T3 means. Learn about the primary locations of internet nodes, and why they exist. There are towns in US where high speed access was made available via the power-lines. Find out how that works.
Take a look at what Houston, Tx, and Austin, Tx had. You might draw some startling conclusions.
In the 90s' where was Comcast, and the Bells then when it came to the internet? This is the very reason that cities can create their own infrastructure to shut these pigs down. Learn how. That will shake the bones of the likes of Comcast to it's core.
Japan's DSL lines make that look like a joke for the fraction of a cost!
So does their Fiber-Optic line which is 1GBPS up an down which is targeted for family homes!
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/29/japanese-offer-gigabit-per
No one ******* when AOL was charging by the hour in the 90s. Not many ******* when @home put similar limitations back in late 90s. If you don't like the service, don't use it! Or move to Montana where cable internet here is faster than comcast (by alot) and no caps.
And yes, some do need the internet because that is how they work. We have to vpn into our corporate networks. And since everything is going digital if you say the internet is not needed then you have to have the same philosophy for phone, tv, radio etc.
...And Montana? Are you for real? You don't even a million people living in that state and there is a reason for it, IT'S BORING!!
See, THIS is the kind of crap that i would LOVE to see come up in a presidential debate.
I hate this country.
And also, you should be happy with it, I can't get anything better than my 300Kb/s internet without paying a fortune, right now.
Or, consider downloading movie rentals. You?d have to download more than 120 standard-def movies at 2 GB/movie every month. 120 standard-def movie rentals would cost you about $500 a month and purchasing them outright at $14.99 per movie would be more than $1,800 per month. Plus you need more than 180 hours in a month to actually watch all those movies.
So, having an Acceptable Use Policy on extraordinarily excessive use of our residential service is nothing new?it?s been around for years -- and it's there to protect the online experience for the more than 99%+ of customers who don't use anywhere near 250 GB in a month. - Charlie Douglas, Comcast
If I have a family of 4. 2 teenagers and 2 adults who each use the multiple computers to watch content they enjoy, play games, use web cams and other such activities, even downloading 2 standard def movies a piece a week + regular usage the cap will be passed.
And the major lie left out of your statement Charlie is the fact that everything is moving to HD. All current camcorders are HD. HD takes a lot of bandwidth Charlie, to upload and download. Shows & Movies in HD are 4 time larger Charlie. That knocks you down to 1 HD movie a day for every person. 250GB was a great cap 10 years ago charlie. But today, It is a bit low. But you pencil pushing retards go on believing what you want. As other posters have indicated as soon as a viable option reaches my area I to will dump the load of garbage that is comcast.
- by labazzo October 24, 2008 8:37 AM PDT
- This is why I switched to Verizon Fiber when they came to my area. I have a 20/5 connection at around 45 a month. No caps. I hope they don't start either. Most of what I do is internet surfing now a days. With comcast I was paying over 50 for a 6/768k connection. Comcast wil never see me again unless they compete with verizon.
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