At a time when staying connected while maintaining social distancing is still highly critical for those working from home or connecting to classes via the Internet, Comcast has announced this week that in March they will introduce the fastest speed over Wi-Fi available across its Greater Chicago Region (GCR), which includes Southwest Michigan, Illinois, and Northwest Indiana. Comcast officials tell us that customers will be able to take advantage of advanced Wi-Fi technology capable of delivering speeds faster than a Gig to support the ever-increasing number of connected devices in their homes.
Additionally, effective immediately, GCR Xfinity Extreme customers will see their download speed increase from 300 Mbps to 400 Mbps, followed by automatic upgrades to the company’s Extreme Pro packages from 600 Mbps to 800 Mbps later in the first quarter of 2021. Those upgrades will be made at no additional cost to customers in the GCR who will benefit from the new speeds.
John Crowley, Comcast Regional Senior Vice President, says, “We recognize that Comcast plays an important role in helping our customers stay connected, so we are constantly advancing our Internet product with new innovation,” and adds, “Our state-of-the-art gateways with Wi-Fi 6 technology, wall-to-wall Wi-Fi coverage, personalized tools and controls and advanced cybersecurity, are all helping to make our customers’ connectivity experience better than it has ever been.”
Comcast is also one of the first U.S. Internet Service Providers to offer a Wi-Fi 6 Certified gateway with the latest version of its xFi Advanced Gateway, which is capable of delivering multi-Gigabit speeds via ethernet and laid the groundwork for Gigabit speeds over Wi-Fi.
Customers on the new upgraded Xfinity Gigabit tier will require an xFi Advanced Gateway, or one of the Wi-Fi 6 capable devices approved to work with the Xfinity network to receive the faster speeds. Comcast will be reaching out to Gigabit Internet customers who need to upgrade their equipment for no additional cost if they don’t have a capable device in their home. Xfinity Extreme and Extreme Pro will not require new equipment to take advantage of the speed increase.
According to The Xfinity Cyber Health Report, some users have dozens of devices in their home. Increased internet speeds support faster connections and more capacity to support the growing number of smart home devices that are being added to home Wi-Fi networks today and in the future.
Comcast’s Xfinity Gigabit Internet service is delivered using Comcast’s existing network architecture and the connections that are already in most customers’ homes. In the GCR, the company also offers Gigabit Pro, a 2Gbps fiber-based synchronous broadband service that is twice as fast as anything else available in the residential market.
Since 2017 alone, Comcast reports that they have devoted more than $12 billion to strengthening and expanding their network – including building more than 33,000 new route miles of fiber. Every 2.5 years the company adds as much capacity to the network as it added in all the previous years combined.
Comcast’s residential broadband service is powered by xFi – a simple, digital dashboard for Xfinity customers to control their home Wi-Fi network. In addition to parental control features like pausing Wi-Fi and screen time scheduling, xFi provides content filters that ensure younger children can only access age-appropriate content.
xFi now also comes with xFi Advanced Security, that protects all the devices connected to a customers’ home network from malware and other security threats. xFi can be accessed via the Xfinity mobile app (iOS and Android), or on the TV, on X1 and Flex, with the Xfinity Voice Remote. The feature is available at no extra cost to about 20 million Xfinity Internet customers who lease a compatible xFi gateway.
