Comcast (quote - news - alert) is indeed making a big splash this year. Not only did the company announce its new pricey VoIP-based calling plan last week, but today it also announced that is kicking its broadband speed up a notch. The cable giant’s move further illustrates the heavy head to head competition amongst telecoms and cable operators to capture as many residential customers as possible within their coverage areas. The cable operator released an official announcement today about a planned upgrade to its two residential speed tiers in Texas, as it prepares to introduce a full suite of other online services and products in other 43 states throughout 2005.
The speed enhancements include increases in both upstream and downstream speeds to enable faster uploads and downloads of large files (photos, videos, and music), more online and multiplayer gaming, easier home networking, and other online services yet to be released throughout the next few months. These speed increases will be offered to customers at no additional charge.
Comcast's current 3Mbps downstream / 256kbps upstream tier will be upgraded to 4Mbps / 384kbps, and its 4Mbps downstream / 384kbps upstream tier will increase to a faster 6Mbps/768kbps.These speed increases will be automatic, which means customers are not required to download any special files or upgrade their connections. Comcast had previously upped its speed in late 2003, when it doubled its downstream speed from 1.5Mbps to 3Mbps, for all customers, at no additional charge.
The speed upgrades will begin on January 26 and will be available to customers in the Texan cities of Addison, Allen, Arlington, Bedford, Carrollton, Cedar Hill, Cockrell Hill, Colleyville, Coppell, Dallas, Dalworthington Gardens, DeSoto, Double Oak, Euless, Farmers Branch, Farmersville, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Greenville, Hebron, Highland Village, Hutchins, Irving, Lancaster, Lewisville, McKinney, Mesquite, Murphy, Pantego, Parker, Plano, Point Royal, Princeton, Richardson, Rowlett, Sachse, St. Paul, Southfork, Stonebridge Ranch, Sunnyvale, The Colony and Wylie.
"Today, we're preparing our customers for the next generation of Comcast High-Speed Internet by upgrading our speed tiers for all of our customers at no additional charge," said Mike Cleland, Comcast's Area VP. "We will continue to differentiate our service in 2005 by introducing innovative built-for-broadband applications that leverage the power of our 100 percent Pure Broadband network and provide value in our six key customer areas of interest: communication, music, movies, gaming, sports and kids,” he added.
Comcast Corporation
www.comcast.com
| Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet.com and Internet Telephony magazine. Previously, she was
assistant editor for EContent magazine in Connecticut. She
can be reached by e-mail at jtorres@tmcnet.com. |
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[January 18, 2005]
