Comcast Speed

[Edited April 6, 2009]

Comcast's lastest e-mail indicated that they're upgrading their connection speeds. The speeds previously promised by Comcast were 6 mbps down and something like 768 kbps up.

And even though Comcast didn't specify exactly what the new speeds are, according to their website the speed boost in my area has either been completed or is in progress - I'm not sure which.

So I ran a number of speed tests over several days to a variety of servers in the US and Canada. The results are inconclusive.

There's great variability, which can be attributed to time of day, the number of my neighbors also tapping into the local node, the distance to the test server, etc. 

But the results are not conclusively better than the results I got last May when I ran similar test. Here are the results from last May.

 

Even though Comcast's speeds have been acceptable, I would certainly switch to Verizon FiOS, which is more reliable and faster at a lower cost, if I could.

Comments

[Linda]

Here in Kenya, the undersea cable is supposed to hit Mombassa in September -- can't wait! I ran that test and got 178 down, 90 up, with 389 latency, which for here is pretty good. I'm at a friend's house with DSL; I'd like to test this at home where it's not over the phone lines - there's a data box by the gate and each flat is wired from there. Very interesting...

[Babs]

The King of All Geeky Things: wish I knew exactly what you are saying: kinda get it........so: why can't you switch: not in your neighborhood??.......aren't you suppose to have options???

[amy]

I've had Verizon FiOS since we moved almost two years ago. Zero complaints so far. Someday in the not-too-distant future, we'll switch to FiOS TV too. That wasn't available when we moved in and we had a protracted battle with DirecTV installation, so we went with Comcast.

[Allyson]

I love FiOS (phone/internet/tv) - I don't know what I will do if I move.