The availability of Comcast’s promised net velocity boosts has a catch: customers want to buy a $25-per-month xFi Complete add-on. Ars Technica reports:
“As markets open, Xfinity Internet customers who enroll in xFi Complete may see their add speeds multiplied by five to ten times faster,” according to a statement released last week. “Our xFi Complete package includes an xFi gateway, superior cybersecurity at home and on the go, tech auto-updates for a brand new gateway after three years, and wall-to-wall Wi-Fi insurance with an xFi Pod [Wi-Fi extender] blanketed if recommended.” Another advantage of using xFi Complete is faster upload speeds.
Comcast will roll out the faster speeds in the Northeast of the United States over the next few months. Plans with 10 Mbps add speeds will be upgraded to plans with 100 Mbps add speeds if you pay for xFi Complete once the new levels are available in your area.Comcast told Ars that faster add-on speeds would be available to customer-owned modems “later in the subsequent 12 months,” but it no longer provides a specific timeline. There is a less expensive way to get the same xFi Gateway with Wi-Fi 6E, as Comcast offers the option to rent that piece of hardware for $14 per month. However, Comcast is most effective at making the added value available to customers who sign up for the more expensive Xfinity Complete service. While the usual month-to-month charge for xFi Complete is $25, new clients who join up through December 31 can get it for $20 month-to-month at some point during the primary 12 months of service.
Comcast’s New Higher Upload Speeds Require $25-Per-Month xFi Complete Add-On
We asked Comcast this week if there was any technical reason why it couldn’t provide faster upload speeds on a customer-owned device. A corporation spokesperson spoke back, saying that Comcast is working on bringing faster uploads to non-Comcast modems. “Comcast intends to increase customer satisfaction with customer-owned modems over the next year and is working through technical requirements as it learns,” Comcast said. “We started with our personal device and are now working on a way to make it bigger for customer-owned devices.” Comcast additionally stated that giving the add-on to xFi Complete clients first follows its “usual validate, test, and certification manner for a brand new community innovation.” But if the motives for restricting the add-on raise to Comcast hardware to start with were only technical and not revenue-based, it is now no longer clear why folks who hire the gateway for $14 a month should not get the identical gain.
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