Comments on: Comcast revs up downloads

Cable modem operator bumps up the speeds for receiving data but keeps prices and data-sending capabilities the same.

Blah! Blah! Blah!

Big Deal.

Comcast?? Cox?? Cable operator of choice???

Who cares! The cable companies are bumping up the download throughput, still throttling the upload throughput and keeping the price the same. Over priced!

I need to access my home systems remotely. I need to be able to upload large files from my home systems to my remote systems and I shouldn't have to wait all day for the file to come across.

This whole notion of increasing the download bandwidth is a red herring. You are still constrained by the number of users in your network cell. Even if you were in a cell by yourself, you can only download data as fast as the upload speed of the server you're downloading from, which is typically throttled on a per connection basis so that the total bandwidth isn't hogged up by one downloader.

The only way I can get symetric bandwidth above 1Mb right now is by getting T1(DS1) "business" service ($500+/mo) and going through a telephone company. Oh sure, you can also get it through the cable company, but guess what? The cable company provides that service, but they go through the telephone company too. Why have the cable company as a middle man? Then you have two layers of incompetent unresponsive crappy service instead of one.

I can't even go with DSL because I'm too far away from the telephone central office. The best DSL speed I can get is 144Mb.

Cable Companies? You want to do something novel? Start providing high speed semetric bandwidth. You have the technology. If you offered the service for a reasonable price, I'm sure there is a market. Otherwise, you're just flapping your yap.

[wazzledoozle]

Yay...

Im a little mixed on this, because Comcast over charges people in the puget sound area, yet I get very good speeds (slightly faster than 4 mb ATM)
Its 45.95 a month here in Seattle... Qwest DSL doesnt really offer them any DSL competition.

[Earl Benser]

News Flash...

... Qwest is so hosed up that it can't even compete with itself
without losing. Everyone should do everything possible to avoid
Qwest services in any area, and specifically their overpricesd and
grossly underperforming DSL service.

Qwest is a perfect example why AT&T should never have been
broken up in the first place.

Who cares?

The move only emphasizes the inferior upload speeds.

Comcast just doesn't get it. The "killer-app" for broadband is upload. The unequall speeds presumes that the user intends to listen to, but not join in the conversation enabled by the Internet.

You want to exchange videos of the kids with friends and family, do it at 300K, you want to download the trailer for Gigli, you get 6Mbs. How long until some provider gets with the program? How long until people are hosting their own blogs on their own home computers -- with video and music of their own design.

There are several open-source projects out there aiming to combine RSS feeds and P2P into a do-it-yourself multimedia broadcast network -- complete with channels, subscriptions, TiVo-like functionality, etc. Clearly the demand and the capability are there -- will anyone cash-in?

Host own blog?

"How long until people are hosting their own blogs..." They don't want people hosting servers. Eats too much bandwidth. What's more, people can't even keep their machines secure when they aren't servers. I'd hate to see scores of unsecured Windows servers on any cable network.

[pentium4forever]

prices are sky high now

It may be $29.95 or something for first 6 months but after that when I've looked up the prices, it's $60 monthly. That's a huge price increase! I think they only offer the 8mbps downstream, don't they offer a 3mbps downstream speed for a lower price for around $30?