Comcast Rolls Out $70-Per-Month Gigabit Internet Service In Chicago (pcmag.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via PC Magazine: Comcast is now offering Chicagoans gigabit internet speeds. PC Magazine reports: "Launched on Wednesday, the program uses DOCSIS 3.1 technology to deliver speeds up to 1Gbps over existing network infrastructure. DOCSIS 3.1 runs through standard cable connections already in place at your home or office. So Xfinity and Comcast Business Internet customers can simply sign up for a plan and plug in a new modem; no fiber installation required. The service, according to Comcast, allows you to download a 5GB HD movie in 40 seconds, a 60MB TV episode in four seconds, a 150MB music album in two seconds, or a 15GB video game in two minutes. Initial users have the choice of a promotional contract price of $70 per month for 36 months, or $139.95 per month (plus tax and fees) with no contract."

Comments

New math? Or net neutrality?

[fustakrakich]

*60MB in four seconds, a 150MB in two seconds*

Only in Google Fiber Cities + Chicago

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary should note that the $70 deal is only good in cities where there is Google Fiber. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/08/comcasts-70-gigabit-offer-is-only-good-in-cities-with-google-fiber/

Re:Only in Google Fiber Cities + Chicago

[Travis Mansbridge]

And the fact that it's just a promotion doesn't make this "$70/mo gigabit" like Google Fiber, this is $140/mo gigabit. They can start people at whatever price they want to get them in the door.

Conspicuous Silence

[ewhac]

The service, according to Comcast, allows you to download a 5GB HD movie in 40 seconds, [ ...marketing blather... ]

Uh-huh. I notice they're being conspicuously silent on upload speeds. "Gee, how nice I can download a movie in a couple minutes, but how long will I have to wait to upload the video of my daughter's ${WINTER_HOLIDAY} pageant?"

Meanwhile, Google Fiber is 1Gb/sec symmetric.

Re:Conspicuous Silence

[arbiter1]

99.9% of home users don't need 1gbit. heck could go 100/100 connection and that would be good for that whole group. heck even 50/30 would satisfy mostly all users needs.

Re:Conspicuous Silence

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course they don't need it. They don't need cell phones either. With 1Gb symmetric I would buy an awesome desktop, then always remote into it from portable, dumber computers. We'd swing back towards distributed systems. Meaning everyone will begin hosting their own videos, pictures, blogs, etc... from their personal connections. Online video and image quality would increase. Cable TV would die. New 3D transit maps could be downloaded and sent to your car every night. AR and VR websites would finally have the bandwidth to not completely suck. Etc...

*up to* 1Gps

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck with that. I predict you will get much less than 1Gbps, especially at busy times of the day when lots of your neighbors are also getting "up to" 1Gbps and watching tv, and you will be locked into a 3-year contract or paying twice as much for non-contract service. I used to be a comcast customer. We had to reboot their router about once or twice per day. We regularly lost internet connectivity. In fact we regularly lost the cable TV signal and some of the channels never did come through clearly. Then they scrambled the signal that we were already paying for and replaced it with a message that they had done it "for [our] convenience." We couldn't watch the channels we were paying for unless we went and got one of their descramblers. We could get a descrambler for one TV for free for a limited time, or something like that (I believe we had to pay for a second one to descramble for the second tv in a different room).

We've had google fiber for a couple of years now and I've only had to reboot the router one or two times that entire time. Every speedtest is over 900Mbps (both up and down). I hope I never have to go back to comcast.

Re:"allows you to download a 5GB HD movie in 40 se

[blankinthefill]

Heck, for Gigabit, I think even a 1TB is low. I know it is for my family... there's 5 of us in the house, usually watching different things at the same time, and the only thing keeping us from watching multiple 4k streams at the same time is our bandwidth. Assuming each of us watched 2 hours a night and did nothing else, we would be through the cap in about half a month.

Re:"allows you to download a 5GB HD movie in 40 se

[Anonymous Coward]

A monthly cap is very telling. It means that they don't have the capacity to deliver what they sold.
The idea with the cap is that the user will limit how much the use the bandwidth so that the average will be low enough for them to handle.
If everyone decides to use the bandwidth at the same time the company will not be able to deliver even if no-one is close to exceeding the cap.

If a monthly cap exists you should take it as a sign that you won't be able to get what you paid for.

Re:Really?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Fuck you Comcast! Comcast and the rest of the cable companies are the modern day digital equivalent versions of the highwayman robbery!

I don't live in the US anymore, but from the comments I read here, I get the feeling that folks in the US have absolutely no trust in their ISPs. And this lack of trust is duly deserved, as the ISPs develop dubious offers full of gotchas and catches:

"It's totally unlimited at speed X! Except when it's not unlimited and speed X is the theoretical maximum."

A good business relationship requires trust between buyer and seller. If the buyer does not trust the seller, he will go elsewhere. The trouble with ISPs in the US, it seems that the choice is extremely limited. And they are all bad as the rest. It's like a "bazaar of crooks".

So how to fix this? I would nice to see bunch of smaller ISPs, who really cared about their customers. As opposed to a few gargantuan ISPs who obviously don't need to care about their customers.