Comcast accelerates its Web upload speed
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, April 12, 2007
Comcast, which has revved up download speeds for broadband Internet customers over the past two years, is now doing the same for uploading.
As of next week, the maximum upload speed will be 2 megabits per second, allowing for faster delivery to others of photos, videos or large text files.
That compares to maximum download speeds of 12 and 16 megabits per second, depending on the subscriber’s plan.
The upgraded upload speed will occur automatically and at no extra cost to customers, said Comcast spokesman Walter Neary.
Comcast’s top speeds for both downloading and uploading come in bursts through its “PowerBoost” technology. Most of the time, 6 and 8 megabits per second is the top download speed. The provider of cable television, Internet and digital phone services introduced its higher-speed bursts last year in response to customers’ growing appetite for bandwidth-intensive activities such as downloading videos, photos, games and music.
“It’s all about parents sending pictures to grandparents, people sending video to friends. This is going to make that faster,” Neary said.
With 1.2 million customers in Washington state, Comcast is striving to keep an advantage over a growing number of high-speed Internet technologies. In parts of Snohomish County, Verizon has constructed a new fiber-optic network capable of delivering download speeds of 5 to 30 megabits per second. Kirkland-based Clearwire has launched a wireless Internet service locally with speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
