Comcast Roll Out 105Mbps – For $105/month?!?
4/14/2011 – US communications giant, Comcast Corporation, today announced the availability of their new super-fast internet service to over 40 million homes in major cities across the country.
Branded “Extreme 105″ as part of their Xfinity range, the service has first been made available in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C, Philadelphia and most parts of Boston. It is a step up from their previous tiered offering “Extreme 50″, offering download speeds of up to 105Mbps (Megabits per second) to consumer residences. It’s delivery is based on the DOCSIS 3.0 technology standard – a process of bonding cable channels together to deliver significant bandwidth increases to users.
And Comcast are making all the right noises when it comes to the benefits of super-fast internet services to the home. Cathy Avgiris, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Communications and Data Services said, ” …we’re powering the digital home of the future, where entire families using multiple devices – laptops, gaming consoles, tablets, smartphones – can all take advantage of high-bandwidth applications simultaneously ensuring they each have a great online experience.”
The company’s press release even included this handy chart to show the differences in download times from an existing Comcast 6 Mbps service (at $49.95/month) against the new Extreme 105 service.
As well as 105 Mbps download speeds, Extreme 105 provides upload speeds of up to 10 Mbps – the same as their Extreme 50 service offering.
But what price this revolutionary service? Only $105/month (see the intelligence in the pricing model?). However, that is an “introductory” offer. It’s a fixed price for 12 months but available only when taken out as part of their triple play package. The company has yet to release how much it will cost as a stand alone service but if I were you, I’d hold my breath and expect a shock.
But what is justifying those high prices? In parts of Europe and Australia consumers receive equally comparable speeds for a fraction of Comcast’s rates. In the United Kingdom for example, with BT’s Infinity service, users receive download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps for the equivalent of $42/month. Comcast’s closest comparable service is their Extreme 50, which while delivering an extra 10Mbps download, costs a total of $116.95. That’s an extra $75/month for a fraction more bandwidth.
Likewise, Austraila’s BigPond’s Ultimate Cable offering currently delivers download speeds of up to 100Mbps for the equivalent of $74 US/month.
How long before the US consumer realises just how much they’re being ripped off for a substandard service?
