Comcast bumps up speed for home-Internet users

Comcast is expected to announce a new, fast residential broadband service, called Extreme 105, available to consumers in more than 40 million homes in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington (DC), and Miami, among others.

The service delivers data at 105 megabits per second — more than 60 times faster than a T-1 line, which most businesses rely on, Comcast says. The new service can download a high-definition movie in 8 minutes, compared with 2 hours and 15 minutes for a standard, 6-mbps Internet connection at home. A TV show would take 20 seconds, instead of 7 minutes. Comcast hopes to whet the public’s insatiable appetite for high bandwidth as more consumers use Internet-connected devices such as televisions, tablet computers, smartphones and gaming consoles at home. The Extreme 105 mbps service, which also offers uploadable speed of up to 10 mbps, is available for new or existing customers at an introductory price of $105 for 12 months, part of a triple-play bundle. Service also comes with a wireless home-networking gateway that turns a house into its own Wi-Fi hot spot. Comcast, which offers its estimated 17 million U.S. Internet customers a variety of broadband speeds, will also offer Extreme 105 on a stand-alone basis.