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Comcast increases Premium and Premium Plus upload speeds

14 June 2008 22:40 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 10 comments

Comcast, perhaps still in PR damage control mode, has decided to increase upstream speeds for customers with Performance and Performance Plus subscriptions. At the Performance tier upload speeds are increasing from 384kbps (kilobits per second) to 1Mbps (Megabits per second). Customers signed up for Premium Plus service will be getting a boost from 768kbps to 2Mbps. That's an increase of more than 2 and a half times in both cases.

They've also added a feature they're calling PowerBoost, which according to the company is "Comcast network technology that enables you to experience faster connection speeds while you are downloading and uploading large files to the Internet."

Mitch Bowling, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Comcast High-Speed Internet, said. �We�ve made a number of complimentary speed increases over the last few years and we focused this latest increase on upstream speeds so our customers can take even better advantage of the ever-expanding amount of interactive applications the Internet has to offer.�

Unfortunately the fine print for PowerBoost makes it appear less useful than you might think. A FAQ on the company's website says the speed increase will last for "as long as the 10MB of a file download on Comcast's 6Mbps High-Speed Internet service, and as long as 5MB of a file upload." Unless you consider 25MB files to be "large" it doesn't seem like Comcast customers will likely see it as more of a PowerBust.

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Discuss this article!
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 14 June 2008 23:07
You have got to love the irony in it all! We will throttle you like mad for the single thing that people use that is upload intensive, but here is a speed boost anyways. I love it! [ + quote]
ZoSoIV (AfterDawn Addict) 15 June 2008 0:56
sound like Netflix lol [ + quote]
geestar20 (AfterDawn Addict) 15 June 2008 1:04
COX has done the same. I was at 7.30mb down and 65kb up and now I get 9.5mb down and 130kb up. Don't get me wrong as I love it but whats the catch? [ + quote]
b18bek9 (Member) 15 June 2008 2:54
i love netflix so cant hate on them to much but i tihnk this is one of the funniest things i've read figuring that if u have a 2mb upload speed and ur uploading to much that they email u ur using to much bandwidth or they just thottle the connection. To funny [ + quote]
nobrainer (Inactive) 15 June 2008 3:02
They may increase the speed but they will traffic manage all ftp, p2p, nntp, smtp, pop3, ssh, tls/ssl, to 2kbps down 0.2kbps up. You can have fast speeds if you don't use it other than looking at 3 url's per month, and that's if we allow you to view that particular site because now we want web site owners to pay up to, or we will reduce the priority for traffic to their sites to a level that is guaranteed to fail to load. The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above! The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15 June 2008 3:08
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 15 June 2008 3:10
In other words, Comcast customers will now, faster than ever, hit both the invisible and possibly-soon-to-be written caps. A boost to 1Mbps from 384Kbps is welcome, however, they will (probably forever) leave us non-upgraded internet users out in the cold with tiny 256Kbps. They could have upgraded the "normal" users to even 512Kbps or 768Kbps. :-( [ + quote]
lxfactor (Senior Member) 15 June 2008 12:59
*Originally posted by Pop_Smith:* In other words, Comcast customers will now, faster than ever, hit both the invisible and possibly-soon-to-be written caps. this doest have to do with capping. capping can apply to them too. hmm maybe by signing a new contract.. you agree that u are a guilty bas***d if caught using bit torrent.. but all the current customers are safe =D [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 15 June 2008 14:09
*Originally posted by lxfactor:* this doest have to do with capping. capping can apply to them too. Maybe I didn't word my response right, basically I ment that the upgraded users will now hit the cap sooner than they have in the past due to the ability to upload more data in the same time period. On the topic, competition is a great thing. I would think FiOS's eating away at Comcast's consumer-base is at least partially to blame for the upload speed increase. [ + quote]
lxfactor (Senior Member) 16 June 2008 4:42
*Quote:* *Originally posted by lxfactor:* this doest have to do with capping. capping can apply to them too. Maybe I didn't word my response right, basically I ment that the upgraded users will now hit the cap sooner than they have in the past due to the ability to upload more data in the same time period. On the topic, competition is a great thing. I would think FiOS's eating away at Comcast's consumer-base is at least partially to blame for the upload speed increase. not likely anymore.. seeing how they blocked newsgroups =[ [ + quote]
egm47 (Inactive) 20 June 2008 10:28
Well the only time I can see any change is when I do A speed Check! As far as any change in actual upload speeds to file storer site I see no change at all. My d/l speed has not changed at all either. [ + quote]