Comcast announced pending rollouts of wideband to several additional markets including Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, and Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The service should be available by the end of the year in these new markets. Comcast had a goal of wiring 20% of its footprint with wideband by the end of 2008. “This technology, combined with our advanced fiber optic network, will enable us to continue to offer our customers even faster speeds and an entirely new phase of Internet innovation,” said Fred Graffam, Comcast senior vice president in a company statement.
Generally speaking, Comcast’s wideband markets include the following broadband tiers and upgrades:
- Extreme 50, offering up to 50 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 Mbps of upstream speed at $139.95/month
- Ultra, offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at $62.95/month
- Performance Plus customers will be upgraded to Comcast’s Blast! tier, which will double their download speeds to up to 16 Mbps and provide up to 2 Mbps of upload speed
- Performance tier customers will benefit from doubled downstream and upstream speeds, offering up to 12 Mbps and 2 Mbps, respectively
With these additional markets, Comcast wideband passes about 10 million homes. As Light Reading points out, Comcast is selectively lighting wideband markets in areas where Verizon FiOS is present. Let the broadband “extreme” battle begin.
