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Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

Summary: Complimentary or contrary to how you might feel with Comcast service, PC Magazine named Comcast as the nation's faster Internet service provider.

Rachel King

By for Between the Lines |

We all complain about cable and Internet companies, whether it be about costs and billing to poor service (customer or performance).

Well, it looks like we can't complain too much about Comcast when it comes to getting online as PC Magazine named it as "the fastest Internet provider in the nation." For real.

The results are based upon more than 58,000 tests completed on speedtest.net.

Thankfully, the NBC Universal-owned Internet service provider doesn't seem to be relying on its laurels. Cathy Avgiris, senior vice president and general manager of communications and data services at Comcast, explained in a statement:

We're going to continue innovating and redefining the Internet experience for our customers. Our speed demonstration of 1 gigabit per second over our private network in June proves that we've only just begun to tap the potential of broadband.

Currently, Comcast offers customers speed choices ranging from 12 Mbps to 105 Mbps, and it provides DOCSIS 3.0 and PowerBoost technologies for even faster connection rates over its fiber-based IP network.

Regardless, I'm sure Comcast customers will find something to whine about still. Complaining about the cable company is almost an American tradition by now -- whether the complaint is warranted or not.

Related:

Topics: Mobility, Browser, Hardware, Networking, Telcos

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17 comments
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  • It may be fast

    But I dropped them because of the number outages we experienced and the poor customer service with them over the 5 years we had them. My cable modem (supplied by them) quite working 2 times in 5 years. One time I had to have a service tech come out & "test" it before they would replace it. I had to take time off work so he could be here between 8am & 1pm do something I already did & then just replaced the modem anyway. The second time they sent a new one "overnight" service. But after 6 days it finally arrived because they sent it ground. Comcast internet service may be fast, but without good uptime & customer service, its just not wotrh it. I have had DSL for a little over a year now & not once has it ever gone down that I know of and they actually reduced my price to $19.99/month guaranteed for 5 years! We have 11 devices connected to it at my home and have never had any issues with speed or dropped connections since I have had it.
    tgschmidt
    Reply Vote

    • I had the same issue for 8 months

      @tgschmidt Comcast is only fast for a few hours a day .... when everybody in the neighborhood is out working. But at night, it drops in speed because the "pipe" to your home is shared with the entire neighborhood.

      During the 8 months I had to deal with Comcast DNS server not working for 3 days, weekly outages and horrendous drop in speed/quality when I tried to stream a movie from Netfix (i swear they throttle 24/7)
      wackoae
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

        @wackoae You wanna imporove your citiues infastructure as well as raise the value of your homes... get on board the fiber co-ops:

        http://blandinonbroadband.org/2012/01/05/want-broadband-form-a-co-op/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wordpress%2FPMLQ+%28Blandin+on+Broadband%29

        This is how we did it in Utah and I get 100 Mbps download AND 100 Mbps upload. Its not a shared node connection either. I have a fiber line STRAIGHT to my home. The co-op makes it affordable to people like me and you as well. I pay $70 and get phone, too.

        It doesnt matter who else is online, what time of day, etc. This is a pure fiber connection with POURE fiber delivery. ZERO COPPER LINE ANYHWERE!!!
        Double Aught Code
        Reply Vote

  • Great when it works

    Down time and slowdowns are is a significant problem with Comcast. The speed is fantastic when it's working but there are often times when the speed becomes dramatically slower or connectivity suffers.

    Their customer service is very hit or miss. Many techs go completely by their playbook and don't listen. Some will listen and work toward diagnosing the problem. If you get a non-listener on the line it's best just to hang up and try again, otherwise you'll waste time jumping through ridiculous hoops.
    ancientprogrammer
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

    Don't forget about Comcast's data cap! (quota limit.)
    hickum
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

      @hickum At 250GB, it's not exactly a crushing cap.
      jgm@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

        @jgm@... If you have 4 teens with computers & smart phones/iPods that have friends over allot, work from home and use your connection for work (video conference, file transfer etc) & primary watch TV & movies with internet devices, that is a cap that comes up quickly! Not just for me & my family either.
        tgschmidt
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

        @tgschmidt - I VPN into my home network over the 3G connection with my iPhone and my wife's MacBook Pro, stream tons of Netflix in HD, and purchase all my software through either the App Store or Steam. I also have another gaming service called Onlive that Streams the gameplay video and audio from it's servers to your computer (at speeds between 3 and 6 mbps). I come close every couple of months, but not since I quit the Bittorrents have my wife and I hit 250 GB. That's with the 50 MBit/sec service, which generally runs closer to 70 or 80 MBit during peak hours for me. Then again, I probably don't have many people on my CMTS...
        Champ_Kind
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

        @jgm@... With todays standards, this IS something to be watched. I have a full TB cap of data trading, with a grace quota as well. Copper TX is a dead technology and Comcast can ONLY deliver these speeds once in a while. Its ACTUALL in their own disclaimers.
        Double Aught Code
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

    Um...this should read National ISPs...smaller local ISPs are way faster! With my local ISP (only servicing 3 neighborhoods with fiber to the basement) I regularly get speeds of almost 100mbps and that's only because the switch I use is a 100mbps switch!
    tech_ed@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

    Comcast has acceptable speeds and given the number of customers it has, it should be the fastest provider in the nation. For bragging rights purposes on the fastest Internet speed available and considerably faster upload speeds, however, Verizon FiOS has Comcast and other cable companies beat hands down.

    There's no comparison to a fiber-optic connection to your door. I recently left Frontier FiOS because they're killing FiOS TV and learned more about the challenges Comcast has (previously had them for 5 years). Apparently, in virtually every home, there's a splitter that divides up the signal and sends it to all the coax outlets in the house. According to their techs, these degrade over time and the signal strength drops.

    Unfortunately, most home builders just slap them in the garage somewhere and then people just wall over them - as was the case when I moved into my house years ago. So, you either have to tear up your walls and hunt down the splitter or have them install a new line on the outside of your house and run it through the wall.

    Not all of this is their fault, but there is a price you pay when you choose to go with Comcast or other cable companies that use this technology - above and beyond how they split the signal in neighborhoods sometimes causing slowdowns when people are on it.

    Anyway, acceptable and fast, just not the fastest. . .
    MukMan
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

    I have Comcast, and I'm happy with it. I think that I have had two outages in the two years that I have used it, both fixed within 12 hours or so. I have their 20MB connection and in speed tests I can pull down 30MB pretty regularly. Netflix, Amazon, Qriocity all look awesome all the time. If I had the option of FIOS I would definitely consider it, but for where I live Comcast is about as good as it gets.
    lokii0
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

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    sirnem
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  • NBCUniversal doesn't own Comcast

    Um, Rachel... "the NBC Universal-owned Internet service provider" -- you might want to double-check that.
    thekohser
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

    My Comcast connection is so slow at times that it fails the speed test I use, saying that it has lost the connection. It routinely fails several times weekly. I'm considering going back to DSL. At least it was consistent.
    hnewsom
    Reply Vote

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  • RE: Comcast named as 'fastest Internet provider' nationwide

    This is only because Comcast paid them to do so. Take a look at the ISP's that are part of the Utpoia Network in Utah (http://www.utopianet.org/). Not only do they provide ACTUAL FIBER to your home, they pprovide an ASYNCRONOUS signal. This means my download and upload are the same... 100 Mbps UP and DOWN. Comcast may offer a someimtes available 105 Mbps download speed, but its upload is trash compared to that.

    Additionally, Comcast uses something that ius STILL just theory, because the math ius there but practical application NEVER poves it more than just theory. They call it PowerBoost and TurboBoost. This means that your signal is hardly EVER at the claimed speed, but compression occurs every 100 MB or so; which not only ruins packet reliability but causes bottlenecking galore. They also boast having a FIBER NETWORK... if this was only all the way to the consumers home would it actually matter but they still convert the signal at the nodes from the fiber medium (if at all) to OUTDATED copper core. I have a constant 100 Mbps UP and DOWN both; the only time compression/packet suspension occurs is when Im connecting to a site that doesnt ahve the ability to match my OVERALL bandwidth... MOST WEB BASED BACKUP SITES UNFORTUNATELY.

    Bottom line, Iv had my PURE FIBER connection (and its PURELY RESIDENTIAL) for over 5 years. Not only that, I started at $50 month for 15 Mbps and a year and a hlaf later was upgraded to 50 Mbps. My new plan also includes phone.. all for $70 a month (locked in for two years!!!) Dont know how many of you have been victim to Comcast promotional rates, but they about killed this veteran, only to have to downgrade because I couldnt aford the more than 50% price change.

    If PC Mag didnt get paid for this asssesment, then they need to stop reporting on technology. They didnt do their homework at all!
    Double Aught Code
    Reply Vote
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