Comcast Promises Huge Boost To Cable Upload Speeds By End of 2023

Comcast announced today that it has tested "the final technical component necessary to deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds" and said it's on track to deliver multi-gigabit download and upload speeds to at least some cable customers "before the end of 2023." The test using Broadcom equipment delivered download speeds of 6Gbps and uploads of 4Gbps, Comcast said. Ars Technica reports: Cable broadband lags far behind fiber-to-the-home in upload speeds, a frustration for many Internet users who lack access to fiber. Comcast and other cable companies have been promising a major upgrade to uploads for years without ever saying exactly when the improvement would reach customers. Comcast is starting to get a bit more specific -- although that "end of 2023" promise doesn't specify what percentage of customers will get the upgrade when it first rolls out. Upgrading Comcast's entire cable territory is expected to be a multi-year process. "With this test completed, Comcast will launch live trials later this year, and will begin delivering 10G-powered multi-gig symmetrical services to customers before the end of 2023," Comcast said. (10G is a marketing term the cable industry uses to describe 10-gigabit-per-second speeds.) Comcast did not say what it will charge customers for multi-gigabit symmetrical service or whether the upgrade will be paired with any changes to the data cap imposed in most of Comcast's territory. Although the upgrade won't require replacing the cables going into customers' homes, getting all the right equipment in place throughout Comcast's network will take a few years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.