Not as hot as I thought...Comcast Speed Upgrade 6mbps for 10 dollars more per month

[50]

Hey, I just got off the phone with a comcast representative and she told me that they were upgrading their systems to 6 megabits. She didn't know at the moment what the upload speed would be; however, this will be a nice upgrade from 4. I am in boston MA, I think this is a YMMV for other locations. I'll try to find more info.

EDIT: The representative told me the speed upgrade would be free; however, further research shows that it will actually COST MORE to get 6mbps. More info here

New Service/Price Chart
With these new speed offerings, Comcast will be offering the High-Speed Internet at the following tiers of service.

If you currently do not subscribe to any Comcast Cable TV or Comcast Phone services, you will have the following options for HSI available to you:

Down Up

(Mbps) (kbps) Price

4 384 $57.95

6 384 $67.95

8 768 $77.95

If you currently subscribe to Limited Comcast Cable TV service or Comcast Digital Voice, the following HSI options are available to you:

Down Up

(Mbps) (kbps) Price

4 384 $42.95

6 384 $52.95

8 768 $62.95

If you currently subscribe to at least Comcast Expanded Basic Cable TV service or above, the following HSI options are available to you:

Down Up

(Mbps) (kbps) Price

6 384 $42.95

8 768 $52.95


NOT SO HOT!

 

[intogamer]

I am in the boston area too... currently with VZ
what part of boston are you located?

I just might have to switch... crappy ass 1.5

 

[l Xes l]

is this all across USA.. or just certain regions?

 

[50]

Originally posted by: intogamer
I am in the boston area too... currently with VZ
what part of boston are you located?

I just might have to switch... crappy ass 1.5

I'm in charlestown. I actually wish I could get VZ as comcast rapes everyone with their high prices esp since I just realized this upgrade wouldn't be free. However, I have fiber optic wires on my street and can't get DSL and have to wait for FIOS!

 

[Souka]

I'm in the Seattle area....Comcast can keep their bandwidth.....why?

They've over loaded their routers....ping times are horrible.

Using tracert to varios IP's... I found my pings going from 5-10ms to 100+ms around the 4th hop....and it's comcast's 68.xxx.xxx.xxx routers. I've confirmed the numbers with two neighboors in my area.

Comcast said they'res nothing wrong since my service is working..... ugh...


Woopie... I have 4mbps down / 386k up.....but with such lousy latency I can't play on-line games anymore.....well, I can, but its not much fun.

I play CounterStrike (HL1).....I used to find dozens of servers that were sub 30ms..... now I'm lucky to find one sub 100ms.....a

 

[Josh64FX]

RCN is awesome... 10mbps down and 1.5 mbps up.. I pay $53 for phone and Internet.. Its not a promotional offer..

 

[AlpooplA]

I upgraded to 6Mb Down, 784Kb Up for $10 extra abt a month ago. I'm near Dallas.

Although it's a bit pricey, I do think it's currently worth it.

I have seen my bit torrents download at 600Kbs and have noticed my UL ratios improve drastically (I do have to limit the UL at 60Kbs to prevent network overload). A better UL ratio appears to have helped my DL overall (one of those cable quirks I think).

I a have a 2nd older PC solely used for bit torrents and testing files, so it's transferring 24/7.

Not sure abt my ping and latencies...will have to test it out at home.

They installed fiber to my house abt 3 months ago, but for some crazy reaon its still not available. (Anyone else out there have to wait that long???)

Even though I'm happy w/ Comcast, I plan on switching as soon as fiber is available. 15Mb Down and 2 Mb up for $39.99 is a no brainer.

 

[Xyl3ne]

In my area of Jersey (Folsom) we're at 6mbps/384kbps for the normal plan if you have cable and 8mbps/768kbps for the upgrade.

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: 50

Originally posted by: intogamer
I am in the boston area too... currently with VZ
what part of boston are you located?

I just might have to switch... crappy ass 1.5

I'm in charlestown. I actually wish I could get VZ as comcast rapes everyone with their high prices esp since I just realized this upgrade wouldn't be free. However, I have fiber optic wires on my street and can't get DSL and have to wait for FIOS!

yeah ^_^ are the fiber cables... black?

 

[chronokefka]

Originally posted by: Souka
I'm in the Seattle area....Comcast can keep their bandwidth.....why?

They've over loaded their routers....ping times are horrible.

Using tracert to varios IP's... I found my pings going from 5-10ms to 100+ms around the 4th hop....and it's comcast's 68.xxx.xxx.xxx routers. I've confirmed the numbers with two neighboors in my area.

Comcast said they'res nothing wrong since my service is working..... ugh...


Woopie... I have 4mbps down / 386k up.....but with such lousy latency I can't play on-line games anymore.....well, I can, but its not much fun.

I play CounterStrike (HL1).....I used to find dozens of servers that were sub 30ms..... now I'm lucky to find one sub 100ms.....a

All of the ComCast Tier reps are trained that pings under 225ms are 'acceptable'. I find this horrible of course, but most people don't even care as long as they can get their emails. The speed upgrades should be available in all ComCast areas within a couple months, and as an interesting side note, ComCast has used up all of the 10.*.*.* IPs for their modems and added a new range, but still keeps leasing out only 68 and 69s...

 

[sapiens74]

Bump for Up Speed!

 

[jhansen]

Originally posted by: Xyl3ne
In my area of Jersey (Folsom) we're at 6mbps/384kbps for the normal plan if you have cable and 8mbps/768kbps for the upgrade.

I'm pulling down 700-750KB/s in a NJ suburb of Philadelphia..no extra cost.

 

[stevieboyh]

I'm in Boston area and get 6MB for the regular price of what they charged for 4MB - do the speed test and see what you have - you may need to cycle the modem to get the new speed tho

 

[herkulease]

with prices like that how does cable expect to compete with DSL in some areas.

att/comcast has promised cable internet since 1999 and I have yet to see it. on top of that they constantly raise rates.

I'm getting from sbc 3mbps down 512 up for 24.99 a month. phone service is another 20 bucks.

 

[mscdex0]

Originally posted by: herkulease

I'm getting from sbc 3mbps down 512 up for 24.99 a month. phone service is another 20 bucks.

werd :thumbsup:

this is what I have currently

never had any downtime since I got sbc's dsl a year and a half ago.

 

[chronokefka]

Originally posted by: herkulease
with prices like that how does cable expect to compete with DSL in some areas.

att/comcast has promised cable internet since 1999 and I have yet to see it. on top of that they constantly raise rates.

I'm getting from sbc 3mbps down 512 up for 24.99 a month. phone service is another 20 bucks.

Blame the FCC for that...taxes and assorted fees just keep on rising. I've seen them increase almost $4 in some areas in the last 4 months. CATV rates keep changing as well as the networks increase licensing fees, but the lowest HSI rate stays constant...not that the speeds/service ever is.

 

[Johnbear007]

too bad I only get 1.8 on my 4mb line. comcast is very difficult to deal with on speed related problems.

They tell me I have spyware or viruses
oh wait, I'm running linux

 

[TimmyJ]

Uh... I've had a 6mbit down and 768 up for about 3 months now for the 10 dollars extra. They call it the "business rate".

 

[chronokefka]

Originally posted by: TimmyJ
Uh... I've had a 6mbit down and 768 up for about 3 months now for the 10 dollars extra. They call it the "business rate".

ComCast has offered the 'Speed Tier' as per our databases for at least the last year. It was just recently that they upgraded the speeds so that 6Mb/384 is standard and the 8mb/768 is now the speed tier... too bad they didn't raise the upload rates. Not that it affects me here in the frozen north.


And from our 'Talking points' guides for the new upgrades:
'Comcast has raised the bar in all of these areas.
Fast - We are now more than twice as fast as DSL.
Reliable - 99.91 percent as of June 2005 (Based on our own data)... '
...'Note: Speed upgrades will begin this month in central and eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New England, Maryland, Michigan, and Washington, D.C. - and we are committed to having nearly all of our markets completed by the end of the summer.'

 

[ninjazed]

Originally posted by: Xyl3ne
In my area of Jersey (Folsom) we're at 6mbps/384kbps for the normal plan if you have cable and 8mbps/768kbps for the upgrade.

Yo Xyl3ne,
I'm in Mays Landing and still "poking" along at 4Mbps. How did you get 6Mbps at no extra charge? I was gonna spring the extra 10 buck but the tech guy told me that there isn't a big noticeable difference. What say you?

 

[feelingshorter]

thats sad..i think verizon gives you a higher upload for just regular price..

 

[chronokefka]

Originally posted by: feelingshorter
thats sad..i think verizon gives you a higher upload for just regular price..

Nah..I think what is really sad is that I'm paying twice as much for a commercial account(10/1) just so I can have unlimited bandwidth usage(as opposed to a 10/1 with a 50GB combined limit. But even so, 100CAD for a reserved IP isn't too bad when the only other option is a 3/.5 DSL.

 

[hansmuff]

Verizon 3 Mb/s down 768 Kb/s up for $29.99, no introductory rate here. Much better than the comcast ripoffs. I am quite happy with 3Mb/s down, and 768 up is great for running servers (Half-Life2, etc)
All this said, this is very YMMV. Service offerings with broadband vary so much, it's hard to make any kind of general statement.

 

[TimmyJ]

ComCast has offered the 'Speed Tier' as per our databases for at least the last year. It was just recently that they upgraded the speeds so that 6Mb/384 is standard and the 8mb/768 is now the speed tier... too bad they didn't raise the upload rates. Not that it affects me here in the frozen north.

What part of Michigan?

 

[Averox]

I'll never use Comcast HSI again. Remember when they first started cutting people off for "using too much bandwidth" except they never stated what too much was?

I was actually in the first wave of cuts