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Comcast Bringing Metropolitan WiMAX To Subscribers

Posted by timothy on from the let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom dept.

RickRussellTX writes "Comcast plans to offer 4 megabits/sec WiMAX services to customers in Portland, Oregon starting tomorrow. Branded as 'Comcast High-Speed 2go' and '4G,' the service will require a $44.99 per month subscription in addition to existing Comcast home service. For $69.99 they will offer a dual-mode card with access to both Comcast WiMAX and Sprint's national 3G wireless network. Future rollouts are planned for Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Say what you will about Comcast (and I know many Slashdot readers have plenty to say about Comcast), this is a daring attempt to bypass entrenched cell phone companies with a direct-to-consumer wireless service."

5 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Comcast is great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I mean, what can you say that's bad about Comcast? Their service is Comcastic!

    1. Re:Comcast is great! by ZirbMonkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You need to lay it on a bit thicker. Someone might think you're serious.

  2. Re:This is just reselling of Clearwire by Miros · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comcast reminds me a lot of a traditional utility company in some ways. They provide, in many areas, a virtually essential service for which they are nearly the only provider. They simply realized the truth that in most cases, for them, treating the customer well is more expensive than treating them like crap, and they're going to pay the same monthly subscriber fee no matter how you treat them in most cases. It's sort of like the incentives of landlords; in the vast majority of cases, the more poorly maintained the building is, the more money the landlord makes.

  3. Because it's Comcast, it will Suck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They'll cap and meter bandwidth, shape traffic, block ports, hamstring the customers with a draconian TOS, etc, etc, rendering this WiMAX service totally 100% craptastic.

    Oh, and customer support will be stellar, as usual.

  4. Here's a *really* innovative idea for them: by The+Cisco+Kid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ditch the requirement to be a wired comcast subscriber. Seriously, there are probably tons of people who arent serviced by comcast (or any cable company) that would love the opportunity to pay $45/mo for high speed wireless. But they are too shortsighted to recognize the potential, and instead want to use this as leverage to sell their cable.