Comcast is boosting internet speeds for more than 20 million of its Xfinity broadband customers, doubling the download rate on one of its lower tier plans and increasing the speed by 33% on two others. All told, it is bumping up speeds on five service tiers across its territories.
Users on Comcast’s Performance/Connect More plan (the name varies by region) will see the biggest jump, with their download rate doubling from 100 Mbps to 200 Mbps. Speeds on the base Performance Starter/Connect plan are getting a 50% increase from 50 Mbps to 75 Mbps. Both the Performance Pro/Fast and Blast/Superfast plans will get a 33% increase, with the former jumping from 300 Mbps to 400 Mbps and the latter from 600 Mbps to 800 Mbps. Meanwhile, the Extreme Pro/Gigabit plan will increase from 900 Mbps to true 1 Gbps speed.
Bill Connors, President of Xfinity at Comcast Cable, attributed the move to Comcast’s desire to meet bandwidth demands from in-home connected devices. “The number of devices connected in Xfinity households has skyrocketed 12X since 2018, and the need for fast, reliable, and secure Internet will continue to grow,” he said in a statement.
Comcast already boosted internet speeds for customers in its northeast territories back in March, increasing the download rate for its Extreme Pro plan from 800 Mbps to 900 Mbps and speeds on its Blast and Performance Pro plans by 50% to 600 Mbps and 300 Mbps respectively. That change came after it upgraded its equivalent tiers in the Greater Chicago and Memphis service areas in November 2021.
Last month, the operator trotted out a 2 Gbps service tier in three markets and said it was planning to launch a faster symmetrical multi-gig offering in 2023.
In context, the speed increases come as Comcast looks to better compete with offerings from fiber competitors. Many fiber rivals already offer multi-gig service tiers and have bumped up the baseline speeds for their entry packages. For instance, AT&T last year increased the speed on its entry-level fiber plan to 300 Mbps. Elsewhere, Consolidated Communications’ lowest-tier Fidium Fiber plan provides speeds of 250 Mbps while new fiber player Brightspeed’s base tier is a symmetrical 200 Mbps service.