After nearly 10 months of radio silence on DOCSIS 3.0 deployment, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) today said it will deploy the channel bonding technology in the coming weeks to users in the Greater Boston area, the Twin Cities, Philadelphia and New Jersey.
The company has about 70 days to meets its CEO Brian Roberts’ January Consumer Electronics Show pledge of passing 20 percent of its footprint with DOCSIS 3.0 by yearend. Comcast says “it expects to reach more than 10 major markets and pass nearly 10 million homes and businesses in the next several months.”
Comcast is using DOCSIS 3.0 toll to deliver its Extreme 50 tier at up to 50 Mbps. It also will enable Comcast to double speeds for the majority of existing high-speed Internet customers at no additional cost.
“These speeds are only a preview of what’s to come — wideband will provide the capability of delivering dramatically faster speeds in excess of 160 Mbps in the future,” said Mitch Bowling, senior vice-president and general manager, of Comcast Online Services,” in prepared comments.
The two new premium speed tiers include:
- Extreme 50, offering up to 50 mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 mbps of upstream speed at $139.95/month;
- and Ultra, offering up to 22 mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 mbps of upstream speed at $62.95/month.
Comcast also is increasing speeds for most of its existing customers.
Performance tier customers will benefit from doubled downstream and upstream speeds, offering up to 12 mbps and 2 mbps, respectively.
Performance Plus customers will be upgraded to Comcast’s Blast! tier, which will double their downstream speeds to up to 16 mbps and provide up to 2 mbps of upstream speed.
Current business class customers also will receive complimentary speed increases — speeds on the Starter tier will be doubled to up to 12 mbps/2 mbps and a new Premium Tier also will be introduced, offering speeds up to 22 mbps/5 mbps for only $99.95/month.
