Comcast has taken its 105Mbps cable Internet mainstream with a national rollout. The Extreme 105 tier is estimated to be in reach of about 40 million potential subscribers in core cities, such as Boston, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC. Its service as before runs off of the DOCSIS 3.0 standard’s channel bonding and can upload faster than many home connections at 10Mbps.
Assuming the connection reached its peak and the destination can match the service, Comcast estimated about a 15- to 18-fold speed boost compared to a 6Mbps connection. A 4GB 720p movie on a service like iTunes should take about five minutes to download, Comcast gave as an example.
Full pricing hasn’t been mentioned so far. Comcast is hoping to steer subscribers into TV and phone bundles where the Internet service will cost $105 per month for the first year of service. It hasn’t said what the price will be afterwards.
