Comcast Reaches 50% DOCSIS 3.0 with Philly Rollout

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) announced Wednesday it is has reached 50 percent of homes passed by DOCSIS 3.0 technology with the launch of wideband in the City of Philadelphia.

Comcast’s high-speed Internet service is now available to nearly 25 million homes and businesses. A spokesperson for the company said, “We’re making clear progress on our goal to reach 65 percent by the end of this year and 100 percent of the rollout by the end of 2010.”

The launch completes the company’s rollout of faster Internet speeds to all areas of the Philadelphia market, including the counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware. The speed upgrades began in December 2008.

As part of the wideband deployment, Comcast will launch two new premium speed tiers to its residential and business class customers. The new residential tiers include Extreme 50, which offers up to 50mbps of downstream speed and up to 10mbps of upstream speed, and Ultra, which offers 22mbps of downstream speed and up to 5mbps of upstream speed.

In addition to the new speed tiers, Comcast also is increasing speeds for most of its existing customers.

Performance tier customers will get doubled downstream and upstream speeds, offering up to 12mbps and 2mbps, respectively. Performance Plus customers will be upgraded to Comcast’s Blast! tier, which will double their download speeds to up to 16mbps and provide up to 2mbps of upload speed. Plus, with PowerBoost technology, customers get even faster speeds to download and upload files such as videos, games, music and photos.

Among the new business-class tiers is the Deluxe 50 mbps/10mbps tier. As part of their service, Comcast Business Class customers receive Microsoft Communication Services, providing corporate e-mail, calendaring and document sharing, as well as additional benefits such as firewall protection, static IP addresses, multiple e-mail addresses and business class 24/7 customer support.

Existing business class customers also will receive complimentary speed increases. Speeds on the Starter Tier will be doubled to up to 12mbps/ 2mbps and a new Premium Tier will be introduced, offering speeds up to 22mbps/5mbps.

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