Codebreaker

Comcast announced Xfinity Platinum Internet for people who want fast speeds at high prices

John Moe Jul 25, 2012

Maybe “fast” isn’t fast enough for you. Maybe you wish you could get away with always driving your 5mph faster, maybe you wish your friend would return that text or email just a little quicker. If you feel that way about your Internet access, Comcast wants to take your money. The company is launching Platinum Internet with announced download speeds of 305 Mbps for $299 a month.
It’s meant to rival Verizon, which announced a package with download speeds of 300 Mbps a few weeks ago, that only costs a mere $200 a month.

Ars Technica reports that those speed numbers don’t tell the whole story:

It may turn out that real-world speeds are still better with Verizon. As we recently reported, FCC testing shows that FiOS speed is 20 percent higher than promised by Verizon, while Comcast cable speed is just 3 percent higher than promised.
While Comcast’s advertised download speed just slightly outpaces Verizon FiOS, the Platinum Internet tier will match the top FiOS upload speed of 65Mbps. Additionally, Comcast is doubling the speed of two existing Internet tiers (at no extra charge) from 25Mbps to 50Mbps and from 50Mbps to 105Mbps “in certain Comcast markets,” starting this week.

And what will these speeds do for people with data caps on their accounts? Why, make them run out of data faster, of course! Necessitating more money to be paid! At yet higher prices!

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.