Comcast touts network performance and Wall Street takes note

Comcast says its broadband network has earned high marks for its performance so far during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now Wall Street analysts are projecting more broadband subscriber growth for the company. Comcast claims its network is delivering above-advertised speeds nationwide, based on the results of more than 700,000 daily diagnostic network speed tests. Upstream traffic is up 32% as more Americans work from home, and downstream traffic is up 11%. The company sees its solid network performance as a bright spot in the midst of the Covid crisis. Comcast Chief Network Officer Jan Hofmeyr said that since 2017, the company has invested $12 billion to build more than 33,330 route miles of new fiber into the network and to increase network automation and artificial intelligence. The analyst team at Wells Fargo recently increased its Q2 estimate for Comcast broadband subscriber additions to 275,000 from 165,000, a bump of 66%.