Comcast kicks of largest nationwide multi-gig broadband initiative in the US

Comcast today announced it has begun a nationwide rollout of multi-gig Internet speeds – that will reach more than 50 million homes and businesses before the end of 2025 – making it the largest- and fastest-ever multi-gig deployment in the United States. New speeds will be paired with Comcast’s multi-gig Wi-Fi experience, which delivers the industry’s best combination of speed, coverage, and control, powered by one of the world’s first Wi-Fi 6E Gateways.

As part of this initiative, Comcast is accelerating the transformation of its network to a virtualized cloud-based architecture that is fully prepared for 10G and DOCSIS 4.0.

Comcast will begin offering 10G-enabled multi-gig symmetrical services in 2023.

Under this initiative Comcast is:

• Immediately rolling out download speeds up to 2 Gigs – combined with up to 5x-to-10x faster upload speeds – to millions of homes and businesses; available in 34 cities and towns before the end of 2022; more than 50 million homes and businesses by the end of 2025; and continuing throughout the entire network. Initial rollouts are already underway in Colorado Springs, CO; Augusta, GA; and Panama City Beach, FL, with more launched at a regular cadence through the end of the year
• For Xfinity customers: extending new multi-gigabit network speeds throughout the home with the multi-gig-capable Wi-Fi 6E Gateway, xFi connected home platform, and xFi Pod Wi-Fi extenders
• For Comcast Business customers: Delivering ultra-fast Wi-Fi speeds for businesses with a new multi-gig capable gateway
• Completing the core technical foundation for 10G, which will deliver multi-gig symmetrical speeds over the connections already installed in tens of millions of homes and businesses
• Finalizing transition to a cloud-based, virtualized network that enables faster speeds, greater reliability for customers, while also implementing a network architectural update that enables greater upload and download capacity
• Building multi-gig capabilities that can reach everyone connected to Comcast’s network, not just select neighborhoods and customers, just as Comcast has done with previous network improvements
• Improving energy efficiency, helping Comcast become carbon neutral by 2035

In preparation for faster network speeds, earlier this year, Comcast launched its latest Wi-Fi 6E Gateway, one of the first in the world to support multi-gigabit symmetrical Wi-Fi. For business customers, Comcast Business also launched a new, ultra-advanced multi-gigabit gateway earlier this year.

Over the past several years, Comcast has been transitioning to digital network technology – powered by a virtualized platform – that delivers greater reliability and increased performance. With it, rather than maintaining, updating, and replacing traditional analog network appliances by hand – which can take days or even weeks – Comcast engineers can reliably maintain, troubleshoot, and upgrade core network components almost instantly, with a few keystrokes on a laptop or mobile app. This also makes the network much more energy efficient and is an important element of Comcast’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2035.

Because Comcast is evolving its entire network architecture, equipment, and customer devices, it’s uniquely positioned to deliver these advancements in speed, reliability, and performance to everyone it serves, not just a select few. And because much of this work is powered by software, these changes can be made with far less disruption to customers than other technologies.

Delivering faster and more reliable internet at lightning speeds
In addition to the immediate performance boost, this work also accelerates the transition to DOCSIS 4.0 and 10G. Powered by DOCSIS 4.0, 10G will deliver multi-gig symmetrical speeds to tens of millions of people over the connections already installed in their homes and businesses, without the need to dig up yards and neighborhoods, or pick and choose who gets faster speeds and who doesn’t. The technical updates included in the initiative announced today are a necessary precursor to Comcast’s 10G deployment.

Thanks to this work, Comcast plans to start launching 10G-enabled multi-gig symmetrical speeds to customers in the second half of 2023. That work will happen on a parallel path with the introduction of the faster speeds launching now.

Over the past 24 months, Comcast has made significant advances in 10G technology, including several world firsts. The company has conducted successful tests of all the technical components necessary to deliver 10G speeds to customers and is now looking forward to beginning live trials.

“10G will deliver so much more than just speed,” said Elad Nafshi, EVP & Chief Network Officer at Comcast Cable. “The digitization and virtualization work we are doing today is already enhancing our customers’ connected experiences and delivering better performance.” Business Wire