Comcast Lost 167,000 Broadband Subs in Second Quarter

smilingbob

GSM-in-FL I enjoyed the Prepaid (OG before Now) and it was 50/10Mbps when I first got it several years ago, mainly for the unlimited data. Post Paid 1.2TB cap had pissed me off one too many times, and with two active gamer kids and a whole family streaming video I had finally had enough. Prepaid was great, and it increased to 200Mbps with no price increase not too long after we got it. It was great for our family, the only reason I went back to Post Paid was the $40/mo 5 year deal after they upgraded our area to midsplit, and (finally) unlimited data with free gateway, which put us at 300/100Mbps for $5/mo less than we were paying on Prepaid for 200/20Mbps. Fiber is here now and we’re going to that, but I have zero loyalty to any of these titan telecom/cable operators - whoever has the best deal is where my money goes. If ATT starts getting greedy I have no issues going back to Comcast.

I still have my venerable old XB3, and I check the Prepaid app occasionally, which still asks me if I want to reactivate my account. The cool thing about the OG Prepaid is you can actually change addresses and re-up service for only a week if you need it.

GSM-in-FL

smilingbob I’m all for them offering different price points and speeds for different people, but I do hope they keep around a budget option for people who don’t want or need the 1Gb+ speeds.

The reason I’m with Comcast instead of a local fiber provider is because the cheapest and slowest speed tier the fiber provider offers is 1Gb for $75/month, which is crazy to me. I would have gone with the fiber if they had a $30 tier like Comcast does.

Donut417

GSM-in-FL Most people are shocked when I tell them a 4K video stream only uses 25Mbps (or less).

Yeah, but video play back isnt the only reason. Media companies are getting greedy and piracy is back on top. Video games are only getting bigger. Cloud backups, etc. More and more things are using data. Sure if your not doing all that you can get by with NOW, but there are cases when 100-200 Mbps down and 20 to 40 up dont get it done. Hell I remember during lockdown when my sister was working from home and had 3 kids doing online learning, they were having some issues.

Chris313AllNight

Donut417

You’re preaching to the choir. 42 upload does not do online backups well speed wise. A few times recently, I had something happen and had to do it all over after waiting like 12 hours or more. Back when I had Fiber, it took like an hour.

Tshirt

Zenit_IIfx Literally weeks after Verizon went live, Comcast sent out mailers offering that same 1G/35Mbps I had before for $59/mo for 5 years.

This is puzzling as to why they don’t make a better offer a little sooner.
and Xfinity has structured their services in such a way that Mobile is a subset of internet usage… allow internet user to leave and mobile dies too. 🤔

Donut417

Tshirt a subset of internet usage… allow internet user to leave and mobile dies too. 🤔

Thats because they offload cellular traffic to WiFi. Xfinity gateways have a special SSID for cellular use from what I read, the less data they push to Verizon the cheaper it likely is for them.

GSM-in-FL

Donut417 Sure if your not doing all that you can get by with NOW, but there are cases when 100-200 Mbps down and 20 to 40 up dont get it done.

Not sure how often most people upload huge files from home. Comcast actually said in mid-split upgraded areas, the node’s upload capacity is sitting idle more than 90% of the time. That’s how they’re able to over-subscribe it so heavily. Most people just don’t upload much.

Donut417

GSM-in-FL Its not just files. Facetime and other kind of video communication. Like I said, during Lockdown my sister and 3 kids all had to do video chats and shit. Their connection struggled. Also services like Bittorrent rely heavily on upload to function. As media companies get greedy, piracy only grows. ISP’s cant get in trouble for what their subscribers do anymore.

Not to mention more and more people are self hosting services, because again companies are getting greedy. Regardless of what the ISP’s policy is on hosting servers, most dont enforce shit unless you are really hammering the network. I would like better upload so I could maybe route all my cell traffic thru my home connection due to Ad Guard being installed on my router. Not to mention being able to remote in to my Plex server securely from outside the home could be beneficial for when it stops working and im not home to fix it. Not to mention Plex has an option to share it outside the home, add in the *arrs stack with Plex you have your own Netflix for a fraction of the cost.

clocks

If Comcasts uploads were so underutilized, you’d think they would be able to increase the speeds. Or maybe they are underutilized due to the speeds being low for anything that requires decent bandwidth.

GSM-in-FL

Donut417 Facetime and other kind of video communication.

Zoom, FaceTime, etc. only use 2-3Mbps upload per call for 1080p.

24Mb upload can easily handle multiple people doing video calls at the same time.

Donut417 Also services like Bittorrent rely heavily on upload to function.

Most people don’t leave their files seeding all day long lol, they quit the app when they’re done downloading.

And I don’t think people like your sister are tech-savvy enough to even be using torrents in the first place.

Most people don’t torrent things.

Not sure which companies are getting greedy, but I regularly buy movies in 4K from Apple for $4.99 which I think is very reasonable, considering the Blu-Rays often cost $20-30+

Donut417 Not to mention more and more people are self hosting services, because again companies are getting greedy.

Probably not. Google Drive is only $5 per month for 400GB of storage, and that’s plenty for most people.

And if you need it for work, your company pays for that anyway, so it costs you nothing.

Donut417 with Plex you have your own Netflix for a fraction of the cost.

If you don’t care about video quality lol

Most of those torrents were encoded by 12 year olds down to like 720p

All to save a couple bucks? No thanks.

GSM-in-FL

clocks If Comcasts uploads were so underutilized, you’d think they would be able to increase the speeds.

They give 300Mb upload to all the business class customers.

Residential is 100-250Mb which seems reasonable. If you actually need more for whatever reason, there’s DOCSIS 4.0 coming.

Tshirt

Donut417
right, but it won’t keep customers in a price war, if the other provider offers faster speeds at a lower price.
Xfinity WAITING to offer a 5 year deal MIGHT keep a few users IF the offer it before the customers switch…. once gone it seems unlikely they’ll come back
Is comcast trying to tank the stock price? hoping for cheap buybacks?

Donut417

GSM-in-FL Most people don’t leave their files seeding all day long lol, they quit the app when they’re done downloading.

Depending on what you downloading that might not be wise. For example some times private trackers might have requirements on how much you seed.

GSM-in-FL And I don’t think people like your sister are tech-savvy enough to even be using torrents in the first place.

I never said my sister used torrents. I was giving an example. Look around all the streaming services are raising prices. People are going back to the old days where they just steal shit. Piracy is on the rise again, and now there are a number of open source tools to help you with it. Check out the *arrs stack, its amazing on what it can do.

GSM-in-FL Not sure which companies are getting greedy, but I regularly buy movies in 4K from Apple for $4.99 which I think is very reasonable, considering the Blu-Rays often cost $20-30+

Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, etc. They all have raised prices. Hell in some cases some raise prices twice in a year. All torrenting costs you is a VPN sub, which is what $70 for like 3 years?

GSM-in-FL Probably not. Google Drive is only $5 per month for 400GB of storage, and that’s plenty for most people.

And if you need it for work, your company pays for that anyway, so it costs you nothing.

Self hosting is more than just data storage. Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, LLM’s, Game servers, PiHole, Ad Guard, etc. Lots of shit you can self host to save money. The first 3 are media servers, you pair that with the *arrs stack and a VPN sub you have your own Streaming service.

GSM-in-FL If you don’t care about video quality lol

Most of those torrents were encoded by 12 year olds down to like 720p

All to save a couple bucks? No thanks.

*arrs stack works with Usenet as well, and those are suppose to be higher quality. For reference, my TV is an older 720p unit, so I dont really care about 4K or anything like that.

Just because your willing to bend over and take it from there corporations doesnt mean the rest of us are. Same with uploading, just because you dont care about uploads, doesnt mean the rest of us dont. Because technically speaking off site backups are part of the 3-2-1 backup strategy so having faster uploads allows you to ensure you are updating your off site backups in a reasonable amount of time. While most dont follow that, there are those who do and 20 to 40 Mbps is not enough.

Donut417

GSM-in-FL They give 300Mb upload to all the business class customers.

Residential is 100-250Mb which seems reasonable. If you actually need more for whatever reason, there’s DOCSIS 4.0 coming.

Only in midsplit areas. Not all areas are upgraded.

GSM-in-FL

Donut417 For example some times private trackers might have requirements on how much you seed.

Most of us aren’t hostage to neckbeards on the internet, or whatever that means.

Donut417 Check out the *arrs stack, its amazing on what it can do.

I have no idea what that even means.

Donut417 Piracy is on the rise again

Maybe, but there’s plenty of affordable legal ways to watch movies and TV shows. And from what I’ve seen, the hackers haven’t found a way to pirate most of the streaming services at any acceptable quality.

I wait to buy movies from Apple until they go on sale for $5

Outside of that, I only subscribe to a streaming service for 1 month if there’s something exclusive I want to watch, then I cancel after that.

Donut417 For reference, my TV is an older 720p unit

That definitely explains a lot about your comments here, and your eyesight.

Donut417 Just because your willing to bend over and take it from there corporations

Quite the opposite, actually.

I’m the one here telling everyone to give Comcast as little money as possible, and suggesting their $30 NOW prepaid plan.

I’m also only paying $25 for my cellular plan.

I wait to buy movies until they go on sale for $4.99 from Apple, and I only subscribe to a streaming service for 1 month if I want to watch an exclusive show, then I cancel after that.

hex0101

GSM-in-FL I found it funny that some people (like supposed tech expert Lon.TV) had no idea what Metro Ethernet even was, and he had ordered the service! lol

He asked another guy who had ordered it “So is it like a T1 line?”

Think he knew what Metro-E was, but wasn’t expecting it for a home internet service. Nothing wrong with the question. That was just asked during the interview to spice things up for the viewer. Lon had already read the post over on Binary Impulse that detailed what the CPE was.

Lon had no other broadband option for upload speeds faster than 12 Mbps and was a content creator, 10 Mbps upload is brutal. Not to mention, all the reliability issues with the HFC plant. I’ve been there, so I believe all of his complaints were valid.

It was August 2020. His HFC plant was still DOCSIS 3.0 only. 400×10, nothing faster was available to customers over HFC. Meanwhile my local HFC plant moved beyond DOCSIS 3.0 and on to DOCSIS 3.1 in Q2 2017.

He said he would have gone for 1000/35 in the first place had it been available. It finally become available in 2021. Frontier deployed XGS-PON to his neighborhood in 2023, finally an upgrade from the old and slow DSL. However, Lon had concerns about the upkeeping of Frontier’s infrastructure. Makes you go eeeek, maybe I should stay with Comcast at least for now.

Cell service at the home is super weak. Not a viable option. Only other option was Starlink in 2021/2022, well if he could have actually signed up for the service. Starlink ordering was based on available capacity in the serving cell of the service address. Even then, I bet it would have not punched above 20-30 Mbps on the upload. Better than 12 Mbps, but not as good as symmetrical 2 Gbps.

GSM-in-FL He admits he has no use or need for all of that speed, but is still happily forking over $300/month to Comcast for it…

AdSense revenue (YouTube) probably helps out with the bill.
Also helped that he finally cut the cord on cable in 2025.
Comcast wants to discontinue CableCards (and QAM TV) anyway…

Seems to enjoy the service….
2 Gbps to 10 Gbps at no extra cost.
Only minutes of downtime in 2.5 years.
No reliance on commercial power out in the field.
He did say that if Comcast was to up the price, then he would leave. The 4 year contract with Comcast ended, so the Gigabit Pro service could be canceled with no penalty if need be.
Also willing to pay for good products that work exactly as advertised.

I can tell you that if Gigabit Pro customers had a choice of a Fiber ISP that offers symmetrical speeds vs paying Comcast $319.00 a month, they would have gone for the Fiber ISP option. Unfortunately, no alternatives were available. Lon definitely would have gone for PON had it been available, would have been much easier.

GSM-in-FL

hex0101 Think he knew what Metro-E was

It didn’t seem that way from the interview. He literally asked the guy “So is this like a T1 line? Wow!” and seemed surprised, like he had no idea what he was even ordering.

hex0101 Lon had no other broadband option for upload speeds faster than 12 Mbps

Until not long after, when Comcast upgraded his node.

Then 2 other FTTH providers came to his neighborhood lol

He’s had the option to switch, but apparently doesn’t care about saving tons of money.

Either way, his YouTube videos were uploading just fine at 12Mbps.

hex0101 However, Lon had concerns about the upkeeping of Frontier’s infrastructure. Makes you go eeeek, maybe I should stay with Comcast at least for now.

Based on any factual experience? Sounds irrational to me. Frontier FTTH is pretty great.

Why would anyone assume DSL is the same as FTTH?

hex0101 AdSense revenue (YouTube) probably helps out with the bill.

Surprised that many people watch him, honestly.

Are you Lon? lol this comment seems extremely detailed and suspicious 🤔

hex0101 I can tell you that if Gigabit Pro customers had a choice of a Fiber ISP that offers symmetrical speeds vs paying Comcast $319.00 a month, they would have gone for the Fiber ISP option. Unfortunately, no alternatives were available. Lon definitely would have gone for PON had it been available, would have been much easier.

The point is, he’s had far cheaper fiber alternatives for years now, but has declined to switch.

He’s happily giving Comcast $300 for no reason at all.

hex0101

Either way, his YouTube videos were uploading just fine at 12Mbps.

I mean, they will technically upload at 256 Kbps. Doesn’t mean that the experience will be enjoyable.

GSM-in-FL Why would anyone assume DSL is the same as FTTH?

Same line on the pole, same crews in the area supporting the service, how are the disaster recovery processes after a major weather event, how fast are fiber cuts repaired/lines moved to a new power pole if the local utility company installs one, etc. Meant that. The service and network itself is great, no issues there.

GSM-in-FL Are you Lon? lol this comment seems extremely detailed and suspicious 🤔

Haha. Ok, this one made me chuckle.

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL the hackers haven’t found a way to pirate most of the streaming services at any acceptable quality.

You’re quite out of touch. Most of the streaming services’ content is pirated at full quality within minutes of it being available and has for years.

Occasionally, they’re available weeks or months ahead of release. Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender has been available for many days now and wasn’t scheduled for release by Paramount until October. They moved the release to July 25 because of the leak.

GSM-in-FL

hex0101 mean, they will technically upload at 256 Kbps. Doesn’t mean that the experience will be enjoyable.

Just looking at the length of his videos, he could easily upload them overnight at 12Mbps.

Either way, didn’t Comcast upgrade his node like a year later, and now he has a choice of multiple different PON providers?

Seems funny to stay with MetroE, but I’m sure Comcast appreciates the $300 per month.

MacLeech You’re quite out of touch. Most of the streaming services’ content is pirated at full quality within minutes of it being available and has for years.

1080p is a lot easier for them to pirate than 4K is. It’s usually difficult to find high quality 4K rips, if they exist at all.

Something to do with the copy protection they have, and very limited devices which are allowed to stream in 4K. Most of the services don’t let you stream 4K in a browser, which makes it difficult for them to pirate the 4K versions.

I remember trying to download Stranger Things in 4K, and all of the torrents had awful quality, it looked like someone tried to poorly attempt recording their screen or something. The 1080p versions looked fine since that’s all they were able to download directly.

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