Comcast said it has introduced two new broadband tiers in California that will raise speeds without raising costs.
Its new Performance Pro tier pumps out 100 Mbps (downstream), while Blast Pro hits 200 Mbps, for both new and existing customers, the MSO said.
Comcast said subs on most of the MSO's bundles will be automatically be upgraded to either Performance Pro, increasing their download speeds from 75 Mbps to 100 Mbps, or to Blast Pro, increasing their speeds from 150 Mbps to 200 Mbps.
The new speeds and tiers will be available to the “vast majority” of its new and existing broadband subs starting tomorrow (March 22). To get the new speeds, customers will need to restart their modems. Customers who purchased their own modems and need to upgrade their modems to receive the increased speeds will need to buy a new device (Comcast’s list of approved modems are listed here).
Comcast has been asked if these speed increases in California are available to other markets yet, or if the MSO intends to extend the speed upgrade to other systems around the nation.
Update: Comcast confirmed that California is the first market to introduce Performance Pro at 100 Mbps, and Blast Pro at 200 Mbps. The operator also noted that it increases speeds regularly every year and that the California announcement marks its first speed increase for 2016.
Comcast ended 2015 with 23.32 million high-speed Internet subs. About 77% of Comcast’s broadband subs received speeds of 50 Mbps (downstream) or more at the end of last year, company SVP and CFO Michael Cavanagh said last month on the company’s Q4 2015 earnings call.
"As customer demands and technology evolve, we continue to increase our broadband speeds to deliver the best, fastest and most reliable Internet experience possible," said Hank Fore, regional SVP of Comcast’s California region. "We're always looking for new ways to deliver on our promises to customers including providing the fastest speeds and a wide range of options that meet customer needs."
Comcast also offers a symmetrical 2 Gbps FTTP-based residential service called Gigabit Pro, in several parts of California, including Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Mountain View, Oakland, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose, Santa Barbara County, Santa Clara, Stockton and Visalia.
Last week, Comcast introduced a 1 Gbps broadband service in Atlanta that uses DOCSIS 3.1 that is initially offered for $70 per month when customers agree to a 36-month contract. It’s selling for $139.95 per month without a contract. Comcast also plans to launch D3.1-based services later this year in Nashville, Chicago, Detroit and Miami, but has not yet said when it expects to deploy the new technology in its California systems.
