Comcast is rolling out 2Gbps Internet service in select states

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Comcast has initiated what it is calling the largest and fastest multi-gig deployment of Internet service in the US. By the end of 2022, Comcast will offer download speeds up to 2,000 Mbps in 34 cities and towns across the country including Panama City Beach, Colorado Springs and Augusta, Georgia.

Initial rollouts are already underway and will continue through 2025 at which time more than 50 million homes and businesses will have access to the speedy service.

Comcast is also boosting upload speeds for select customers. As illustrated in the diagram below for Colorado Springs residents, upload speeds will now be between 2x and 10x faster than before.

The company started prepping for the upgrade earlier this year with the launch of its WiFi 6E Gateway. Described as the company's most powerful device to date, it delivers wireless connectivity across the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands to support the influx of connected devices in today's homes. Comcast also launched a new WiFi 6-certified business gateway in March.

The ISP said its work will help lay the foundation for the transition to DOCSIS 4.0 and 10G. Not to be confused with mobile 5G (which stands for fifth generation), 10G is the name of the technology that will enable Comcast to eventually deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds over the cable connections that are already installed in tens of millions of homes and businesses, without having to dig up yards and neighborhoods.

In April, Comcast on a live network managed to reach download speeds beyond 8 Gbps with an upload speed north of 5 Gbps. That is about twice as fast (on the download side) as the modem it tested in January.

Comcast expects to launch its 10G-based multi-gig symmetrical service in the second half of 2023 alongside the rollout of faster speeds happening now.

What Internet speed are you rocking these days? Younger me ca not believe I am saying this, but at what point is a residential connection "fast enough?"

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/95943-comcast-rolling-out-2gbps-internet-service-select-states.html

 

[passwordistaco]

The tech is great, the company is ****. You'll be able to hit your data cap faster, assuming your connection doesn't go down for days at a time.

 

[MeatPopsicle]

The tech is great, the company is ****. You'll be able to hit your data cap faster, assuming your connection doesn't go down for days at a time.

You can pay a monthly fee to remove the data cap.

 

[Lionvibez]

Been on 1Gbps/750Mbps Fiber for about 3 years now.

I'm surprised they are still going with Docsis and not just switching to fiber already.

 

[lonetac]

Its useless unless its fiber. I already had 1 gig cable service from comcast and couldnt even watch a tv show in HD during prime time. The way they claim their speeds is complete bs and misleading. You will never get those speeds and you will slow down slower than dial up at times despite paying for gig service.

Just go fiber and never have a problem again.

 

[passwordistaco]

You can pay a monthly fee to remove the data cap.

Of course. They place an artificial barrier and charge the customer to remove it.

Is there an extra monthly fee to get them to monitor their network and respond to outages? Or to get access to actual support instead of a script-reading monkey? "We'll send a tech to your house." No, find the spot where your line went out. It didn't happen in my yard.

 

[toooooot]

It will go very nice with that terabyte data cap.

 

[toooooot]

Been on 1Gbps/750Mbps Fiber for about 3 years now.

I'm surprised they are still going with Docsis and not just switching to fiber already.

They have the infrastructure, it is built, paid off, and just brings money. Of course they use it.
I recently had internet from them. 300mbps speed. Only it was only a fraction of that speed in the evening.
It felt nice to pay for speed which was available but not always.

 

[Lionvibez]

They have the infrastructure, it is built, paid off, and just brings money. Of course they use it.
I recently had internet from them. 300mbps speed. Only it was only a fraction of that speed in the evening.
It felt nice to pay for speed which was available but not always.

I mean Docsis Cable is a dead end they should just go straight fiber instead of trying to keep a dying horse kicking.

 

[trparky]

I recently had internet from them. 300mbps speed. Only it was only a fraction of that speed in the evening.
It felt nice to pay for speed which was available but not always.

No offense but it seems like you're defending them for what amounts to crap service. Your quality of service is proof that cable really needs to step up their game and deploy faster and more dependable service.

Where I live AT&T is deploying fiber and according to a friend of mine that works for AT&T, they're installing fiber-based service as fast as humanly possible and when they ask why the customer left Spectrum, the number one complaint is crappy service. I have 500/500 service from AT&T; Spectrum can't even touch that.

 

[bandit8623]

I mean Docsis Cable is a dead end they should just go straight fiber instead of trying to keep a dying horse kicking.

its really not dead. even though I love my centurylink fiber. they are moving to midsplit this year bringing much higher uploads along with 1gb. its expensive to replace all cables with fiber.

 

[Lionvibez]

its really not dead. even though I love my centurylink fiber. they are moving to midsplit this year bringing much higher uploads along with 1gb. its expensive to replace all cables with fiber.

One of our Cable ISP in Canada has already gone mid split offering 100Mbps on upload which is better but still peanuts compared to fiber. And I know replacing coaxial cable is expensive, but going Docsis 4.0 you have to bring fiber much closer to the home anyways so this is why I said you might aswell just go fiber.

As for it being expensive they can afford it they just choose not remember most of these large ISP were given money from the government just to do this and they did nothing.

Rogers Cable one of the biggest ISP in Canada is starting to do this slowly because even they see the writing on the wall. Their competitors that were stuck on DSL when cable was much faster and now lapping them because they went fiber.

 

[bandit8623]

One of our Cable ISP in Canada has already gone mid split offering 100Mbps on upload which is better but still peanuts compared to fiber. And I know replacing coaxial cable is expensive, but going Docsis 4.0 you have to bring fiber much closer to the home anyways so this is why I said you might aswell just go fiber.

As for it being expensive they can afford it they just choose not remember most of these large ISP were given money from the government just to do this and they did nothing.

u hear ya! but think about it, they bring fiber closer right? then down the road they switch it over fully if needed.
trust me fiber is the bomb! but I see why they are milking it. if the telecom providers could have they would too. but twisted pair just hasnt cut it for 15 years.

 

[Lionvibez]

u hear ya! but think about it, they bring fiber closer right? then down the road they switch it over fully if needed.
trust me fiber is the bomb! but I see why they are milking it. if the telecom providers could have they would too. but twisted pair just hasnt cut it for 15 years.

That's my point why do it 80% now then have to spend more money later doing the other 20% your competitors on fiber will not be waiting for you they can crank up the speeds faster on fiber than you will be able to on even docsis 4.0

I know fiber is the bomb I was a cable user for about 15 years and now fiber for almost 4 there is no comparison when its comes to speed, latency and how stable the connection is.

 

[bandit8623]

That's my point why do it 80% now then have to spend more money later doing the other 20% your competitors on fiber will not be waiting for you they can crank up the speeds faster on fiber than you will be able to on even docsis 4.0

I know fiber is the bomb I was a cable user for about 15 years and now fiber for almost 4 there is no comparison when its comes to speed, latency and how stable the connection is.

its not 80% though. the cost to bring all the way to the home is alot more plus the ONT costs. also fiber keeps getting cheaper and ont tech keeps moving forward. im on gpon, thats only 1 year ago now ctl is putting in xg-pon. sometimes it pays to wait in that regard as optical costs come down in price

the other issue is most average users dont care as long as their wifi works right? I mean most people dont notice a diff from 40 meg to 300 meg.

clearly we are not in that group but you get what im saying. im just saying for the average user 300 meg x 50 upload will work for them just fine and wont care.

heck I could drop down to 100x100, but its 15$ more to do gig up and down.

 

[trparky]

im on gpon, thats only 1 year ago now ctl is putting in xg-pon. sometimes it pays to wait in that regard as optical costs come down in price

But from what I understand, transitioning from GPON to XGS-PON is as simple as replacing some cards on the ISP-side and the ONT on the customer-side; the fiber itself doesn't need replacing.

That's my point why do it 80% now then have to spend more money later doing the other 20% your competitors on fiber will not be waiting for you they can crank up the speeds faster on fiber than you will be able to on even docsis 4.0

Exactly. Fiber basically has limitless bandwidth. From what I understand, each customer on a GPON network has their own laser from the ISP-side so that, of course, allows for telecom GPON networks to figuratively smack cable DOCSIS right from the very beginning without even trying since you're not sharing bandwidth like Cable DOCSIS system do.

 

[Lionvibez]

But from what I understand, transitioning from GPON to XGS-PON is as simple as replacing some cards on the ISP-side and the ONT on the customer-side; the fiber itself doesn't need replacing.

Exactly. Fiber basically has limitless bandwidth. From what I understand, each customer on a GPON network has their own laser from the ISP-side so that, of course, allows for telecom GPON networks to figuratively smack cable DOCSIS right from the very beginning without even trying since you're not sharing bandwidth like Cable DOCSIS system do.

My current fiber is GPON but my ISP also has XGS-PON available since they offer a 3Gbps/3Gbps connection.

You are sharing bandwidth on fiber but its not even remotely close to what goes on with a cable node. I believe my ISP has home users on a 1x32 split and their business customers on a 1x16 split. Where as most cable ISP its like 100-128 users per node.

 

[bandit8623]

But from what I understand, transitioning from GPON to XGS-PON is as simple as replacing some cards on the ISP-side and the ONT on the customer-side; the fiber itself doesn't need replacing.

Exactly. Fiber basically has limitless bandwidth. From what I understand, each customer on a GPON network has their own laser from the ISP-side so that, of course, allows for telecom GPON networks to figuratively smack cable DOCSIS right from the very beginning without even trying since you're not sharing bandwidth like Cable DOCSIS system do.

Gpon is shared. Reg gpon is 2.5gbps down and 1.5 upload shared with however many are on the split. Ctl used to do 64 shared. Now it's down to 32. 16 for biz.

Xgpon raises the Total bandwidth to 10gbps up and down shared.

You can reuse the fiber.. but yes the ont and the olt need to be swapped out of transitioning a pon.

 

[trparky]

I believe my ISP has home users on a 1x32 split and their business customers on a 1x16 split.

That's comforting. What happens when there's congestion on the fiber link? Is there a way for them to power up another laser at a different wavelength to add more capacity to the link?

Where as most cable ISP its like 100-128 users per node.

Ouch.

 

[Lionvibez]

That's comforting. What happens when there's congestion on the fiber link? Is there a way for them to power up another laser at a different wavelength to add more capacity to the link?

Ouch.

I've yet to hear anyone complain about congestion on fiber.

 

[trparky]

I've yet to hear anyone complain about congestion on fiber.

Neither have I. I only have 500/500 with AT&T Fiber and it's proven to be a very reliable service. No slowdowns in the evening, even during peak times.

 

[bandit8623]

I've yet to hear anyone complain about congestion on fiber.

it has happened alot actually, but they lowered the split s down to 32 and its mostly fixed. the olt SHOULD manage latency so users dont see spikes, but either dirty fibers or a firmware problems have caused issues. imagine 5 users on that pon run a speed test at the same time? doesnt happen very often. back 4 years ago they actually limited how many gig customers on a pon.

 

[bandit8623]

That's comforting. What happens when there's congestion on the fiber link? Is there a way for them to power up another laser at a different wavelength to add more capacity to the link?

Ouch.

gpon tech is set at the wavelenghts its designed for. xgpon uses more than gpon. the olt back at the main office manages latency. ususally its not noticable to the end user unless there is another problem like a dirty fiber refracting light. apc connectors are very good at stopping reflections because of its angled tips. adtran also had issues with their olt's not having enough ram. they caused huge problems during peak times

 

[Endymio]

What happens when there's congestion on the fiber link? Is there a way for them to power up another laser at a different wavelength to add more capacity to the link?

It's called DWDM -- dense wave-division multiplexing -- and can run dozens or even hundreds of wavelengths per fiber. It's common on backbones, but just not used much in FTTH/FTTN applications because it's not needed.

gpon tech is set at the wavelenghts its designed for. xgpon uses more than gpon.

These technologies are essentially the exact opposite of what the OP was asking about-- they time-mux multiple signals onto a single wavelength, rather than the reverse. (technically, they normally use 2: one upstream, one down).

 

[bandit8623]

It's called DWDM -- dense wave-division multiplexing -- and can run dozens or even hundreds of wavelengths per fiber. It's common on backbones, but just not used much in FTTH/FTTN applications because it's not needed.

These technologies are essentially the exact opposite of what the OP was asking about-- they time-mux multiple signals onto a single wavelength, rather than the reverse. (technically, they normally use 2: one upstream, one down).

We are specifically talking about gpon.
The 10 Gigabit PON wavelengths (1577 nm down / 1270 nm up) differ from GPON and EPON (1490 nm down /1310 nm up),

Can they run at the same time? Sure.. do they typically no..