Comcast boosts internet speeds, to offer fastest Wi-Fi

With more workers and students using online devices at home, Comcast is doubling the speed of its Internet Essentials broadband service for low-income households and boosting the speed on many of its other plans — all without any increase in its rates.

Next month, Comcast also plans to begin offering a Wi-Fi 6 Certified gateway with the latest version of its xFi Advanced Gateway, which will offer the fastest Wi-Fi service in Chattanooga.

“We recognize that Comcast plays an important role in helping our customers stay connected so we are constantly advancing our Internet product with new innovation,” said Jason Gumbs, Comcast’s regional senior vice president in Atlanta.

Comcast is one of the first U.S. Internet Service Providers to offer a Wi-Fi 6 Certified gateway with the latest version of its xFi Advanced Gateway, which is capable of delivering multi-Gigabit speeds via ethernet. Customers on the new upgraded Xfinity Gigabit tier will require an xFi Advanced Gateway, or one of the Wi-Fi 6 capable devices approved to work with the Xfinity network to receive the faster speeds.

EPB plans to soon also offer such service, according to EPB spokesman J. Ed. Marston.

“Our ability to deliver 1.2 Gbps does not require significant upgrades to our network and is delivered using Comcast’s existing network architecture and the connections that are already in most customers’ homes,” Comcast spokeswoman Sara Jo Walker said. “Customers only need to make sure they have our latest xFi Gateway. No new wiring inside or outside of the home is required. We will contact Gigabit Internet customers in Tennessee to proactively to let them know if they need to replace their gateway and upgrade them.”

The move to boost internet speeds by Comcast is the second in the past 15 months and reflects both the growing demand for more speed and connectivity with more online devices and the ongoing investments by Comcast and other internet service providers to improve their services.

Since 2017, Comcast has invested more than $12 billion to strengthen and expand its national network, including building more than 33,000 new route miles of fiber. Walker said every 2.5 years the company adds as much capacity to the network as it added in all the previous years combined.

While the advanced Wi-Fi upgrades will begin in March, Chattanooga’s Xfinity Extreme customers will see their download speed increase from 300 Mbps to 400 Mbps immediately, followed by automatic upgrades to the company’s Extreme Pro packages from 600 Mbps to 800 Mbps later in the first quarter of 2021. The upgrades will be made at no additional cost to customers in Tennessee who will benefit from the new speeds.

“Our state-of-the-art gateways with Wi-Fi 6 technology, wall-towall Wi-Fi coverage, personalized tools and controls and advanced cybersecurity, are all helping to make our customers’ connectivity experience better than it has ever been,” Gumbs said.

Xfinity Extreme and Extreme Pro will not require new equipment to take advantage of this speed increase.

For current customers who have gigabit service, some will need a new modem to get the faster speeds. For customers who want to upgrade to Gig service, Walker said they may need to swap out their equipment.

Increased internet speeds support faster connections and more capacity to support the growing number of smart home devices that are being added to home Wi-Fi networks.

Internet Essentials customers will see download speeds double to 50 megabits-per-second (mbps) and uploads increase from 3 to 5 mbps. Download speeds reflect how quickly you can receive data, such as loading web pages or streaming videos. An upload speed is how fast you can send data, such as using a video chat to talk to someone.

The Internet Essentials plan costs $9.95 per month and is available to qualifying low-income households. Families or individuals already receiving federal benefits through programs such as SNAP, Medicaid or WIC are eligible. This is the second time this year that Comcast has increased the speed of its low-cost service. It upgraded the service to 25Mbps from 15Mbps in March last year, just as most of the country was starting to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Comcast started Internet Essentials in 2011 to help impoverished children who received free or reduced-price lunches at school get access to the internet at home.

In Hamilton County last year, EPB teamed up with the school system, city and county governments and local foundations to create HCS Ed Connect which provides free high-speed broadband service to students in most Hamilton County schools who receive free or reduced lunches. So far, 7,100 households with more than 12,000 students are connected to HCS EdConnect, according to EPB.