Comcast Update

In my posts of March 21, 2008 and March 28, 2008, I presented my own experiences with Comcast's High Speed Internet.

Since then, I have had phone conversations with them on the phone, and the last request I made of them was for them to replace my cable modem, currently rented from Comcast. The Executive Office people I dealt with on the phone arranged for a service call to my house, and yesterday they came as promised.

I got a brand new Motorola cable modem to replace my older Terayon cable modem (originally provided by Adelphia). In the process of installing the new modem, the Comcast technician discovered that their PowerBoost feature was not enabled on my account for some reason. He installed the modem and communicated with his home office to have PowerBoost enabled.

From their web site, this is what Comcast says about PowerBoost: "PowerBoost technology utilizes available capacity already built into Comcast's advanced fiber network to provide customers with extra bursts of download speed – up to 12Mbps and16Mbps, respectively, on Comcast's 6 and 8Meg services."

As noted earlier, I am a 6Mbps customer. The result of the combined new modem and PowerBoost is incredible! I cannot believe the high speeds I now get.

Using the aforementioned speedtest.net web site to check my speeds yesterday and today, I consistently measure over 11000 kbps download and 1600 kbps upload! This is what I reported on March 28 in my post: 5366 kbps download and 365 kbps upload. Amazing!


The net of this is, at least for Comcast customers, especially if you were once an Adelphia high speed internet customer:

1) Call Comcast and make sure you are on their 6000 kbps download plan, which is their standard offering. Originally I found that I was still on the old Adelphia standard speed of 4000 kbps. Comcast simply changed something in my account profile and almost instantaneously I got download speeds increased from around 4000 kbps download to near 6000 kbps download.

2) If you rent your cable modem from Comcast and still have your old Adelphia-issued modem, I suggest you ask for a newer modem.

3) Check speedtest.net frequently, but especially today to see if you are getting the same results, more or less, which I now enjoy.