For Comcast Internet customers frustrated by the cable service's slow upload speeds, there have been some welcome announcements recently. But the availability of faster Comcast uploads has a catch—users can only get the higher upstream speeds by purchasing xFi Complete, which adds $25 to monthly broadband costs.
"As markets launch, Xfinity Internet customers who subscribe to xFi Complete will have their upload speeds increased between 5 and 10 times faster," an announcement last week said. "xFi Complete includes an xFi gateway, advanced cybersecurity protection at home and on the go, tech auto-upgrades for a new gateway after three years, and wall-to-wall Wi-Fi coverage with an xFi Pod [Wi-Fi extender] included if recommended. Now, another benefit of xFi Complete is faster upload speeds."
Comcast is deploying the speed upgrade in the Northeast US over the next couple of months. Plans with 10Mbps upload speeds will get up to 100Mbps upload speeds once the new tiers roll out in your region—if you pay for xFi Complete. Comcast told Ars that faster upload speeds will come to customer-owned modems "later next year" but did not provide a more specific timeline.
There is a cheaper way to get the same xFi Gateway with Wi-Fi 6E, as Comcast offers the option to rent that piece of hardware for $14 a month. But Comcast is only making the upload boost available to those who subscribe to the pricier xFi Complete service.
While the standard monthly rate for xFi Complete is $25, new customers who sign up by December 31 can get it for $20 monthly during the first year of service.
Comcast vague on timing for user-owned hardware
We asked Comcast today if there's any technical reason it can't deliver the higher upload speeds on customer-owned equipment. A company spokesperson responded that Comcast is working on bringing faster uploads to non-Comcast modems.
"We intend to extend the experience to customer-owned modems later next year and are working through the technical requirements as we learn," Comcast said. "We started offering it with our own equipment first and now are working through how to extend to customer-owned equipment."
Comcast also said that giving the upload boost to xFi Complete customers first follows its "typical validate, test, and certification process for a new network innovation." But if the reasons for limiting the upload boost to Comcast hardware initially are purely technical instead of revenue-based, it's not clear why people who rent the gateway for $14 a month shouldn't get the same benefit.
Comcast has also been teasing Full Duplex upgrades that are supposed to provide symmetrical download and upload speeds over cable. Comcast says it will offer multi-gigabit download and upload speeds to at least some cable customers "before the end of 2023." It won't be surprising if those upgrades require subscribing to xFi Complete.
Unlimited data also tied to xFi Complete
This isn't the first time Comcast has bundled a seemingly unrelated feature into xFi Complete. Customers in areas where Comcast enforces its 1.2TB data cap can get unlimited data either as part of xFi Complete or through a separate fee.
Last week's announcement of higher speeds was focused on the Northeast US, where Comcast still doesn't impose the data cap that it enforces in most other states. Comcast faces stiffer competition in the Northeast thanks to Verizon's un-capped FiOS fiber-to-the-home service.
Northeast US customers might not have felt compelled to buy xFi Complete previously because they aren't subject to Comcast's data cap. The availability of higher upload speeds could push some holdouts to buy the $25 monthly add-on, even if their own modems and routers should technically support the speeds available in Comcast's new service tiers.
"Comcast continues to be ahead of customer demand," Kevin Casey, the company's Northeast division president, said in the announcement. "Through advanced digital network innovation, we are again evolving our network to provide faster speeds for customers and are excited to begin rolling out a multi-gig speed tier to customers in the Northeast."
Details on new speed tiers
The announcement said Comcast "will increase speeds for its most popular Xfinity Internet tiers across 14 northeastern states from Maine through Virginia and the District of Columbia," with the speed upgrades rolling out by the end of this year.
Unlike the upload boosts, the download speed upgrades don't require buying xFi Complete. Performance Starter tier download speeds will rise from 50 to 75Mbps, Performance tier download speeds will rise from 100 to 200Mbps, and Performance Pro download speeds will rise from 300 to 400Mbps.
For all three of those tiers, upload speeds will remain at 10Mbps if you don't have xFi Complete. For people who do buy xFi Complete, the 75Mbps download speeds will be paired with 75Mbps upload speeds. The 200 and 400Mbps download plans will both get 100Mbps uploads, but only with xFi Complete.
Comcast is raising its 600 and 900Mbps download tiers to 800Mbps and 1Gbps, respectively. Without xFi Complete, those two tiers come with 20Mbps uploads. With xFi Complete, they get 100Mbps uploads.
A 1.2Gbps download plan that has 35Mbps upload speeds without xFi Complete will have 200Mbps uploads with xFi Complete. Finally, a new 2Gbps download plan "in select markets" will get 100Mbps uploads without xFi Complete and 200Mbps uploads with xFi Complete.
Comcast previously announced similar download and upload boosts in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Augusta, Georgia; and Panama City Beach, Florida. Those upgrades should come to all of Comcast's territory eventually, presumably with the same caveat that customers must buy xFi Complete to get the higher upload speeds. The xFi Complete requirement for faster upload speeds was also mentioned in a brief Comcast announcement dated June 16.
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October 25, 2022 at 02:45AM
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Comcast’s new higher upload speeds require $25-per-month xFi Complete add-on - Ars Technica
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