Comcast joins several other broadband carriers by launching a 100 Mbps broadband tier. But in Comcast’s version, the super fast tier is only available to business subscribers, not residential. The new offer is priced at $369.95 per month and is currently only offered in their Minneapolis/St. Paul market. It offers upstream bandwidth of 15 Mbps.
Comcast suggests that residential markets aren’t ready for 100 Mbps, despite numerous offers of it across the country. They may be right. The pricing alone for residential 100 Mbps tiers is usually north of $100/month, not to mention the debate of whether residential customers actually need that much speed. By targeting business customers, Comcast is offering a potentially compelling competitive offering to traditional telco T-carrier products.
The SMB segment is particularly attractive to companies like Comcast, and they’ve been aggressively pursuing it with some mixed success. The battle for the SMB segment sometimes gets lost in the pitched battle for residential triple play customers. But its competitive intensity is building significantly, and cable companies see the SMB market as a key area for growth. Cable companies like Cablevision, with their Optimum Lightpath division, are executing quite well there – expect others to follow.
