Items tagged with Comcast
The cable/satellite industry is finally having to face the music: customers are getting tired of rising TV service prices and are looking for alternative solutions. According to a recent report, Americans are fleeing cable and satellite TV packages at an increasing rate as they flock to OTA local channel broadcasts paired with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Comcast is keenly aware of this new dynamic; the company lost 106,000 cable subscribers during its most recent quarter. To help keep customers in the fold, however, CNBC is reporting that the cable giant is working...
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Comcast has laid claim to the title of "nation's largest provider of gigabit broadband" with the announcement that nearly 58 million homes and business have access to its gigabit internet service. Comcast claims its rollout to be the fastest deployment of gigabit speeds to the most locations in the country; Xfinity Gigabit Internet and Comcast Business Gigabit service are available to "nearly all" customers in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Comcast offers faster speeds with multi-gigabit available to business users in Comcast service areas. Comcast notes it has increased speeds 17 times...
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It's beginning to look like wireless carriers have wildly conflicting ideas on what "unlimited" means with regards to their unlimited data plans. The latest of these is Comcast with its Xfinity Mobile MVNO service, which piggybacks on America's largest 4G LTE wireless network: Verizon Wireless. For starters, streaming video on Xfinity Mobile will be capped at 480p, which means that 720p and 1080p video are out of the question -- even if you pay extra for unlimited data. Comcast will provide a paid option later this year that will allow you reenable 720p resolution streaming. That seems...
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Mesh routers are all the rage these days, as they allow users to ensure that their whole home is blanketed in Wi-Fi while maintaining peak speeds throughout. Comcast is getting in on the action with the official nationwide launch of its xFi Pods, which are rebranded Plume Wi-Fi extenders with its own special firmware backed in and accompany software. If you recall, Comcast invested in Plume last year, and the xFi Pods are the result of that partnership. The devices are hexagonal in shape and plug-in directly to a free electrical outlet. They are designed to spread Wi-Fi to dead zones in your home,...
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Over the past week, we've reported quite a bit about the rise of cord-cutting and how big cable and satellite TV companies are adapting to the changing landscape. Comcast in particular lost 96,000 customers last quarter, and is looking for new ways to stop defectors from moving to cheaper alternatives. Last week, Comcast responded by raising internet speeds out of the blue for customers in specific regions of the United States: Houston, Oregon, and Southwest Washington. We don't know if these areas in particular have seen heavy defections from Comcast's TV packages, but customers in these...
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There is a lot of turmoil going on in the cable TV market right now, with plenty of shakeups taking place. The wild swings in the marketplace and rise of companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook with regards to video delivery is precisely why AT&T is looking to hook up with Time Warner to better compete. Quarterly earnings are in for some of America's top cable providers, and the numbers aren't looking good with respect to subscriber counts. Charter reported that it lost 122,000 video subscribers for its most recently completed quarter. What's interesting is that this figure is far above...
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Comcast is giving its Xfinity xFi customers more control over their home Wi-Fi network and those who access it with convenient, real-time push notifications. The notifications are sent to your smartphone, tablet and/or TV screen to let you know when a new device joins your network (i.e. xFi Advanced Gateway or another compatible xFi Wireless Gateway) or if your Wi-Fi settings have been changed (among other things). These new notifications are in addition to existing Xfinity xFi features like parental controls, and the ability to immediately pause internet activity at the push of a button. The notifications...
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TiVo's Rovi Corporation and Comcast are wrapped up in another legal battle with TiVo claiming that Comcast is violating patents that are held by Rovi and related affiliates. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In the suits, TiVo alleges that the Comcast X1 platform is infringing on patents that Rovi holds that have to do with the capability for a viewer to pause a show and resume playback on different devices. Rovi also claims that Comcast is infringing on patents that have to do with...
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Picture this—your parents just moved to a new location, ordered Internet service, and are having trouble setting it up. What do they do? They call you, of course, for help in configuring their fancy new broadband equipment. That is one of the things Comcast set out to change with its new xFi Advanced Gateway, a high-speed DOCSIS 3.1 modem and router built into a single, decorative device that doesn't look nerdy, and doesn't require one to configure it. The most confusing part of the whole deal is not the equipment, but the terms. Let's clear that up. Xfinity xFi is a service Comcast offers...
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If you've been having trouble accessing some of your favorite websites, or accessing the internet at all, you're not alone. It appears that Comcast's Xfinity internet service is experiencing nationwide outages that are affecting large swaths of its customer base. Some of the major cities affected by the outage include Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Boston, New York City and San Francisco -- these represent some of the most densely-populated cities in America. DownDetector.com has a live look at Comcast's current connectivity woes, which you can see here: For its part, Comcast has provided an update...
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Monopolies and wild animals are similar in that when you corner them, they will attack. While a bear will eat you, the big telecom monopolies that exist in many states will attack with money spent trying to block anything that might mean more competition for their services. In many areas of Colorado, Comcast is the only option for broadband internet and the company has famously bad customer service and strict data caps on usage. The problem is that there is little or no choice in many areas of the state, and many other states face the same issues. Fort Collins, Colorado, a city of about 150,000...
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When you think of the availability of high-speed internet access in the United States, not many people have a wide range of options to choose from. You might have one large cable provider (i.e. Comcast, Charter) to choose from, and if you're lucky (if you can call it that) a second-tier option like AT&T DSL. Customers would like choice when it comes to internet service providers, but big telecoms coupled with local and state governments often get in the way of those aspirations. However, two cities are looking to take the fight to big telecoms by proposing that they build their own fiber...
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If you want a smartphone that can last all day on a charge, and don’t necessarily care about having the all latest high-end features, LG has a new phone that might be right up your alley. Appropriately named the X Charge, the mid-range smartphone’s claim to fame is its monstrous 4,500 mAh battery. For comparison, the recently released Motorola Moto Z2 Play features a 3,000 mAh battery while the incredibly popular Samsung Galaxy S8+ has a 3,500 mAh battery. LG says that the X Charge can “last an entire weekend before needing to recharge”, which could make it a great companion if you need it...
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Google’s motto previously was “Don’t be evil” but it seems as though Comcast might need to take up that slogan soon. Telecom Cable, a small ISP in Texas, is claiming that Comcast resorted to outright sabotage to cripple its business in 2015.According to a lawsuit [PDF] filed in Harris County, Texas, Telecom Cable alleges that Comcast retaliated against it by destroying its networking infrastructure in the Weston Lakes community. The suit claims that Comcast and its contractors destroyed Telecom Cable’s lines despite the fact that they were clearly marked (above ground) with orange paint and “buried...
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