Comcast has announced it will begin rolling out 2 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) broadband service across the U.S. starting with a launch in the Atlanta market next month.

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Comcast calls the speedy internet service Gigabit Pro and it’ll be available to any home with close proximity to the company’s fiber network — but it will require special equipment and installation.

The cable provider expects to make the service available to 18 million homes across the country by the end of 2016.

Comcast claims the service will be symmetrical, so you won’t have to deal with the “half fast” Internet uploads that some Internet providers offer, which Verizon pointed out earlier this year.

Comcast has been building its fiber network for a while now. It provides top-tier Ethernet service to businesses with up to 10 Gbps speeds. Gigabit Pro could be considered the residential version of its business package.

The Verge also notes that Comcast is working on a broader, but slightly less speedy version of Gigabit Pro with a 1Gbps package that it claims will be available to “almost every customer in our footprint.”

Right now there are a few other companies providing gigabit Ethernet in the US, but only in select markets. Google Fiber provides data transfer at up to 1Gbps in a few major cities in the U.S. for about $70 per month. CenturyLink, which is even more limited in its coverage, offers 1Gbps service for $80 per month. U-Verse GigaPower from AT&T, which provides the same 1Gbps speed and is surprisingly limited in its reach right now,  is also available starting at $70 per month.

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16 replies on “Comcast bringing 2Gbps Internet service across the US starting next month”

  1. My Docsis 3.0 modem supports up to 343Mbps and I have another one that supports 172mbps. I don’t know why their 305 plan required special equipment when I still have’nt maximized the bandwidth on my current modem. My area offers 105 at least and I’m sure they’d be able to up it to 150, but I’d hope they allow these modems to be compatible with gigabit even if it they prefer an upgrade to docs is 3.1. My modem cost $85 and I’d enjoy using it for at least 5 years at eventually 250mbps or 300 ideally so I get great speeds without more hardware upgrades. Some people still use docsis 2.0 so they’d be pissed if they found out their new 3.0 doesn’t support more than 343, unless I’m mistaken. Theoretically it can support more than that, but I don’t need fiber to the home yet.

  2. I used to have 150mbps internet service a while ago but I ended downgrading to 100mbps service. The reason I downgraded was that I found most of the websites I normally use couldn’t come even close to using the full speed I had available. The only websites that came close to using the full speed were the speed benchmarking ones.

    I realize that people can have multiple computers accessing the internet simultaneously, but it would take close to 200 computers downloading unique full HD 10mbps video streams simultaneously to make full use of a 2000mbps connection like the one Comcast is proposing.

    1. This is a good point. It is very common for servers (just typical everyday servers for regular businesses, not anything fancy) to be using 1Gb or even 100Mb connections at their data center.

      I’d imagine that Netflix and the like would work great at 2Gb, but not actually need more than about 50Mb anyway.

  3. but it will require special equipment and installation.that and the monthly fee has me LMFAO

  4. Guess we will have to watch Atlanta and see how this goes. If data caps are in place it’s going to be fairly pointless, but with bans on towns and cities building their own being lifted maybe they’ve figured out that as long as they can get in the ballpark of reasonable(only double or triple what those services would cost) they can very easily kill most of those efforts(and Google Fiber) in their cribs and keep their monopolies.

  5. I thought they promised they wouldn’t invest anymore if the FCC classified them as utility? But if Google goes near their neighborhood they are somehow going to invest again?

  6. I know people despise Comcast, and the devil is in the details, but this is pretty fantastic nonetheless.

    1. I agree, they will say anything to keep the politicians off their back as they profit from lack of competition. They profit the most from doing nothing.

  7. “Xfinity in-home wireless gateway already provides up to 700 Mbps Wi-Fi
    connections, so they are not far from their goal right now.”

    I dont think that 700Mbps is the speed to the internet… but rather the WiFi speed. So, no, they’re not close to 1Gb internet speeds.

    1. Whoops. We’ve updated the post to remove that line (which was mentioned in the Comcast press release… it’s just kind of irrelevant).

  8. Did I miss the price Comcast will be charging? Or is that going to be the surprise they drop on the customer in private! As you know Comcast has a history of over charging, then charging you another price the next month, and again the next month, but you never really get the speed they say you are supposed to get!

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