Comcast gets serious about DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts

Alright Minneapolis, you've had your fun. Now it's time for another swath of Comcast markets to indulge in the lavish joys that only DOCSIS 3.0 can provide. For those unaware, the aforesaid technology enables 50Mbps internet to be delivered over the cable company's infrastructure, which brings it up to speed (ahem) with offerings by fiber-based carriers Verizon and AT&T. In the next few weeks, the DOCSIS 3.0-based "Extreme 50" option will bring 50Mbps down / 5Mbps up to subscribers in parts of New England, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Better still, the company announced its intentions to bring the $139.95 per month service to ten other big markets where it will reach "about 10 million homes and businesses in the next few months." Oh, and if that's just too much intarwebz for you to handle, an "Ultra" 22Mbps downstream service will be available for $62.95 per month.

[Via Reuters, image courtesy of TheRedWoodMotel]

[Joe H @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:01PM]

As long as they're capping bandwidth at 250 GB, what's the point? Or is there a higher cap with these services?

[Patriks7 @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:47PM]

250GB? Seriously? I'm stuck with 4GB here :|

[happy_penguin @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:19PM]

Not to mention the fact that you probably won't be getting the full claimed 50 anyway. As it is now I am supposed to get 6 but I'm lucky if I get 4 on a good day. If follows suit you can take whatever they claim and multiply it by 60%. Now you're probably looking at a realistic average speed. Comcrap can blow me.

[Nate @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:57PM]

The point is they can offer insanely fast downloads to customers while using a little good sense to help thwart abusers that could otherwise clog up the system. I see no major issue with this policy.

Try buying this kind of bandwidth on a dedicated circuit and you'll begin to experience the true cost that unlimited bandwidth at these bit rates put on a business.

[Rob @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:01PM]

I think you meant 50Mbps DOWN / 5Mbps UP

[Marcus @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:04PM]

My first reaction too. But who knows..right?

[Techie @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:07PM]

I think I speak for every person out there when I say Comcast can suck my fing balls. Who cares how fast your internet is when you got a bandwidth cap at 250GB per month.

[Kamokazi @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:13PM]

Yep...you could take out your entire bandwidth cap in a 11.1 hour pr0n binge.

[Irwin @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:21PM]

LOL you're complaining?

Man I have roger's second best plan (best 18mbps plan not available in my area) and we get a monthly cap of 95GB...

[Mike @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:36PM]

On the upside, since the cap, my wrist is feeling much less strained....

[Todd @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:41PM]

@Techie

I would like to offer my sweaty sack for any sucking performed by Comcast ( http://twitter.com/comcastcares ) as well.

They force a 250 cap on you, provide no way to meter usage, then offer 50 megabits per second downloads...then make billions in overage charges?

[BigD145 @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:02PM]

Nope. No overage charges. They boot you, permanently. They make $140 in a couple days and you get no service. I'm not sure how they expect to make money like that.

[TheUnit @ Oct 22nd 2008 7:06PM]

Actually its 50Mbps Down / 10Mbps Up for the extreme, with others 22/5(boost 30), 16/2(boost 20) and 12/2(boost 15) also economy 768/384

[Ridgecity @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:10PM]

Hey Mike, Is it true you get black hairs in your hands if you over do it? my friend wants to know...

[heffeque @ Oct 22nd 2008 10:43PM]

Interesting. In Spain the mayor cable provider (Ono) is rolling out 50/3 Mbps + national landline calls for free for 60 euros/month and 100/5 Mbps + national landline calls for free for 80 euros/month. And TV is 5 euros more for the basic pack, 5 over the basic one for the normal pack and 5 over the normal one for the advanced TV pack.

So basically you get 50/3 Mbps (with no bandwidth limitation) + all calls to national landline numbers + the normal digital TV pack = all for 70 euros a month. I'm guessing that it's cheaper than what Comcast offers. Quite a bummer for the average Comcast customer in my opinion.

[ryan.sahb @ Oct 23rd 2008 2:39AM]

I wouldn't be complaining if I were you. We get ADSL2+ from Internode in Australia, the fastest available, (24 down, 5 up) with a download cap of 25 gigabytes for $65AUD a month. That's about $44USD. D:

[ryan.sahb @ Oct 23rd 2008 2:41AM]

Also, considering I'm living about 2km from the exchange and only get a max of about 128kb/s… D:

[saintlunacy @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:03PM]

That's horrible news. Now that Comcast has announced that they're throttling down heavy users/capping usage @ 250gb/month......wouldn't this service just encourage heavier use? I mean, aren't they technically shooting themselves in the foot here?

So who's the idiot paying for this when it opens?

[parazitu22 @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:05PM]

I would assume that for $140 per month there would not be cap, at least a lot higher then 250GB. The idiot paying for this is the heavy user that is getting throttled back when he/she reaches 250. It's fast, but far too expensive for "joe six pack".

[Joe H @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:09PM]

The problem is that they're not 'throttling' those users who reach 250 GB, they're cutting them off entirely.

... Unless something changed from when they announced it in August.

[t3yf5g @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:44PM]

Are we talking bits or bytes in terms of the 250 cap? If it's bytes then, unless you're hosting your own website with 10k hits a day, it shouldn't be an issue. But if it's bits, that blows.

[ben @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:05PM]

Yup. Even easier to hit the 250gb cap. I hit mine in 12 days! lol Lets see what kind of feedback I get from Comcast!

[Le Big Mac @ Oct 22nd 2008 7:42PM]

Your palms probably need to rest anyway . . .

[heffeque @ Oct 22nd 2008 10:47PM]

No need for palm resting, that usage can be attained perfectly by doing heavy P2P usage, and for that, no human presence is needed other than to search the content at the very beginning.

[Bilbo Baggins @ Oct 24th 2008 12:55AM]

Thanks for being our Guinna pig. I haven't installed tomato firmware and have no idea how much ive been downloading.... ive got to transfer gigs around all the time... Madddddd gigggggs!

F comcasts 250GB limit - can we sign a petition?

I guess they would rather have you switch providers than just do honest business.

[crabbymule @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:07PM]

i live in minneapolis and have the 50 mbps service. no caps with this service. get about 27mbps down and 5 mbps up.
fyi.

[thedesolate1 @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:06PM]

Too bad they are gonna kill the internet by 2012.

[Eric @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:47PM]

Live in MPLS as well, but I haven't jumped on the 50Mbps service yet. I'm at 12Mbps, for about the same price as they're saying the 22Mbps will be. I think I'd be happy with that.

[OneLove @ Oct 23rd 2008 4:52PM]

I had Comcast 6mbps "performance" internet service in Minneapolis until today.

I saw this post and called Comcast to ask them about the 22Mbps service.

I gave the rep my account info and she suddenly tells me that I was upgraded to 12mbps yesterday. (wink, wink)

So, I went home and reset my modem now it's at a constant 12mbps?!

Seems they don’t upgrade customers to the current service level until you call about your internet?

Comcast is sneaky.

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:09PM]

Finally Philadelphia can get faster internet. I've been waiting for FiOS for the longest time but it doesn't look like anything is happening. Comcast basically owns Philadelphia. There isn't any other choice for high-speed internet. I'm looking forward to 22mbps.

[Peter @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:40PM]

I feel for you man. I'm out in the Philly suburbs and I'm getting FiOS with 20/5 data, HD TV service AND a real POTS phone line for $100/month. Comcast's pricing is absurd, and their service sucks too.

50 Mbs is great but unless you are downloading torrents, there aren't too many places that can serve it up to you at even half of that, so in all practicality you're going to be limited to 10+ Mbs for any single download anyway.

[matt merritt @ Oct 22nd 2008 11:11PM]

I feel your pain, oh so very much.

We're in Comcast Country.

[sclose @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:13PM]

maybe "Joe The Plumber" might have some use for his kids disney.com shows or the small buisness, but as a regular Susie Homemaker with 3 kids 2 pets and a foreclosure hanging overhead it aint happening. especially in chicago

[phanbouy @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:14PM]

ed the dairyman was bangin harriet the harlot. then all hell broke loose

[Aaron @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:20PM]

$140? For an Internet connection?

I think I can put up with my 24Mbit (15Mbit in reality) connection for $27 a month, even if I am losing out on 35Mbit extra.

[Dustin Hess @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:23PM]

who is YOUR isp? I want some of that. The best deal around me is $50 a month for 8mb down, and 512 kb up.

[CraigJ @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:34PM]

I thought 15down/1up (real world) was good for $45 from Cox. Their customer service, like everyone else's sucks, but at least I only need to call them every couple of years...

[iofthestorm @ Oct 22nd 2008 11:19PM]

Seriously, who is your ISP? That's insane, we pay that much for 3mbit DSL in California.

[Aaron @ Oct 23rd 2008 3:08AM]

Be Unlimited

Probably isn't available in your area. :)

[eric @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:25PM]

These speeds can already be achieved on Docsis 1.1 with a hacked modem from www.cablehack.net

[BJ is Gooder @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:24PM]

I've never heard of this - is this real? Website looks a bit fishy - I don't think anyone would answer if I called 000.000.0000

[wompa164 @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:22PM]

Wow, if true this is kind of surprising news. Comcast is mostly still on DOCSIS 1.1 in most areas and just started rolling out 2.0 to some Northern areas. Are there even any DOCSIS 3.0 certified modems on the market?

Whatever though, with my 'custom' SB5101 can't wait until the configs show up on the Comcast TFTPs. :)

[Amun @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:23PM]

I'd just like to say that Comcast sucks. Hopefully docsis 3.0 will help some of the problems with their service in my area, but I'd rather just switch to FiOS already. Stupid duopoly....

[aegzorz @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:29PM]

$140 per month is insanely expensive!

As a european I'm often jealous of your low low prices on electronics, this I'm not jealous of.
Since 2005 I've had 100Mbit full duplex for roughly $15 per month, granted that is subsidized because I'm a student but full price is not that much higher (around $30 per month).

[Allan @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:47PM]

What country are you from?! I want that!

[GreezyG @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:07PM]

He's in a dorm. The 100mbps is the fiber his dorm/university has. They charge him $15/month to access it. Normal people in houses cant get anything even close to that.

[aegzorz @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:19PM]

Actually it is available to everyone on the metropolitan area network, I'm not paying the university, I'm paying a regular ISP.
My "land lord" is however a student housing one, and has negotiated a subsidized rate at $15 per month.

100/100 Mbit non-subsidized is $30 per month and 1000/100 Mbit is $130 per month.

[Midnightbrewer @ Oct 23rd 2008 1:42AM]

About the same in Japan; I pay about $30 for 100Mbps fiber with no cap, and they also offer on-demand television service if you want it (I didn't bother getting it so I can't name the price right off the bat). They also take a hands-off approach on what their customers do with their bandwidth; no packet shaping. Internet in America sounds absolutely awful; glad I'm not moving back anytime soon.

[Ian Kennedy @ Oct 23rd 2008 1:55AM]

I just don't grok 100mbps net service.

I had 20mbps symetical fios and the only thing that could feed it was teh tornetz.

I see all these folks from densly populated places with their 100mbps or 1gbps fiber and wonder what they do with it. I mean, sure, if your buddy down the street has a killer pr0n server that'd be awesome, but for anything other than local I don't see that being of much use.

And in Japan? One hop off the island and you're in slowtown, population: you.

[greenlight @ Oct 23rd 2008 3:19AM]

Aww where do you live where you can get gigabit? Here in Lund, Sweden our metro network (which otherwise sounds _exactly_ like yours, when I first read your post I thought I had gone posting drunk again) has services at max 100 mbit :(