Speed history

GHz-Man · 2026-04-07T17:07:42+00:00

I found this speed chart on an old Comcast press release: Amazing to see how much bandwidth they’ve been able to squeeze out of the same cable over the decades, with even more to come. What was everyone’s original speed over cable? We lived in one of the early launch markets for Comcast in Maryland. At the time it was part of “@Home” still. We signed up in 1998 around the same time we got the original iMac, so we never actually even used dial-up. That was our first internet connection and first home desktop. My dad had a Windows 95 laptop for work, but that had no internet on it and he only used it for spreadsheets and Word documents. I think it was around 1Mbps download / 128kbps upload with whatever D1.0 modem Comcast was using at the time.

hex0101

GHz-Man Mine went for Comcast Business Metro-E Fiber. Some locations have cable modem service on-site as well. The cable modems aren’t through the state network so they get used by IT for testing or for stuff like the video doorbells and entry system. No filtering basically on the cable modem service. Direct connection to Comcast’s network and peering.

crucialcolin

GHz-Man Multiple T3s? Wow, that must’ve been expensive lol

I wonder why they needed so much bandwidth at the time.

I graduated in 2013, and our high school was still using a single T3 then, but their firewall blocked pretty much all video streaming and social media websites anyway, so I can’t imagine much bandwidth was being used.

The most we used the computers for was MS Office and doing online research for papers.

Yeah I wondered that myself. The high school itself was pretty big at the time. I know my class alone had like 1,200 graduates. Plus supposedly the local telephone exchange was still in the basement of the bombproof 1930s era gym building with the city potentially still owning a small stake in the phone company which started out life as public utility(an alternative to Pacific Bell). So maybe they got a deal on it.

Fun fact that gym and the US post office building were the two places in town you were supposed to go in the event nuclear war were to break out 😆

kmax

I remember @home where you could uncap the modem. Ah those were the days.

Web-Shooter

I went back and found all the press releases to see when they increased speeds over the years lol

My parents have always had the cheaper tiers. Performance, then Performance Starter, then I switched them to Prepaid in 2017.

We actually still had a 2.0 modem (SB5100) until 2017 on Performance Starter. Was working fine on 10/2Mb, then we got an XB3 when we switched to Prepaid.

1998: 1.5Mb download / 128Kb upload

2003: 3Mb download / 256Kb upload

Early 2005: 4Mb download / 384Kb upload

Late 2005: 6Mb download / 384Kb upload

2008: 6Mb download / 1Mb upload

2009: 12Mb download / 2Mb upload

(Switched to Performance Starter)

2011: 6Mb download / 1Mb upload

2015: 10Mb download / 2Mb upload

(Switched to Prepaid)

Early 2017: 10Mb download / 1Mb upload

Late 2017: 20Mb download / 1Mb upload

2021: 50Mb download / 5Mb upload

2022: 50Mb download / 10Mb upload

(Switched to NOW)

2024: 100Mb download / 10Mb upload

2025: 100Mb download / 20Mb upload

Devious

Web-Shooter We actually still had a 2.0 modem (SB5100) until 2017 on Performance Starter.

I started with a DOCSIS 1.0 Toshiba PCX1100U.
You could hook it up via ethernet or USB.

lesmikesell

Interesting history, but I think it brings up the question of: at what point did you consider the internet to be capable of handling all your video without compromises?

Web-Shooter

lesmikesell at what point did you consider the internet to be capable of handling all your video without compromises?

We weren’t streaming content really until 2012 when we got an Apple TV. Before that, we would just rent movies On Demand, which didn’t use internet bandwidth.

6Mbps (actually 7.2Mb with Comcast’s usual 20% over-provision) was fast enough for one 1080p HD stream.

Then when we got a 4K TV in 2017, that was also just barely fast enough for one 4K stream. 24Mb with the 20% over-provision.

The upload speed was painful, especially during the Covid lockdown with 2 of us working from home. But our laptops at the time only had a 480p webcam, and Zoom only uses 600kbps upload for 480p video.

computerman2

Was on Comcast cable at a slow speed before moving in 2004 to City that didn’t have Comcast available then, so was on AT& DSL at 6MB & 608kbps upload lol From 2005-2014 lol, then got WOW Cable 105 Download, forget what the upload was.

amazed it handled all i did back then on it pretty well
SecondLife in 2008 sometimes Djing for 6 hours, Updates, Game Downloads, Youtube watching when became available, Netmeeting Webcamming til Windows 8 launched and my old Intel camera wasn’t compatible anymore

Then in 2016 was on Comcast again with Extreme speed tier 105 at the time

Continued same tasks on Cable Internet as well for a while, but webcam tasks died off when Windows 8 released as it didn’t support Windows 8 lol, haven’t bought a newer one yet, but have considered it

Onedrive uploads still do regularly

System updates still do

Plus Galaxy phone and Other Family Member Apple Iphone updates, Netflix Streaming, HBO Max Streaming, Youtube Watching nightly, glad have Unlimited Data nowadays lol

Web-Shooter

computerman2 Yeah, we were lucky to be in the northeast region where Comcast never enforced their data cap, I think due to competition with Verizon FiOS.

You’d be surprised how little speed most people actually need. HD streaming only needs 6Mbps or so, and 4K only needs 25Mbps.

I had 1Gb symmetrical fiber in my dorm room at college, but in regular use I barely noticed a difference compared to our Comcast at home. The only time I really noticed it was when uploading files to Google Drive, but now cable is raising their upload speeds too.

Mosaic

Web-Shooter Lossy streaming, yes. If you want actual high quality video you’re looking at much higher bitrates. Sony Bravia Core needs up to 80Mbps, for example.

Web-Shooter

Mosaic Lossy streaming, yes.

All streaming is lossy, including Sony Bravia Core lol

But that’s a pretty niche service. It only works on their TVs, and it only has Sony Pictures movies.

Most people can’t see a difference, honestly. Sitting 6+ feet away on the couch.

Apple’s 4K bitrate is 25Mbps and looks great to me.

Mosaic

Web-Shooter I can absolutely tell the difference between Bravia Core and Netflix. Immediately even.

Bravia Core is basically Bluray remux quality.

Web-Shooter

Mosaic Netflix is pretty rough, I agree. They heavily compress it down to like 15Mbps.

But you’re not getting most Netflix shows on Blu-Ray anyway, and they aren’t on Bravia Core.

Mosaic

Web-Shooter I have a usenet provider and a debrid provider so I’m not just streaming stuff on streaming services…

Web-Shooter

Mosaic Ok? Most people don’t do that lol

Mosaic

Web-Shooter It’s way more common than you might think. We pay for multiple streaming services and get fed up with the crappy video quality and buggy sites/apps (Hulu and Paramount are the worst) and it’s just funny because the pirate stuff works better.

100Mbps is the bare minimum I would recommend to anyone these days.

Web-Shooter

Mosaic It’s way more common than you might think.

It’s not lol

I’m fairly tech-savvy and I couldn’t even figure out how to set up Usenet or find movies there. Not intuitive or easy at all. And I’m pretty sure most Usenet providers you have to pay money for.

There’s also plenty of things that just aren’t available on those sites, because they aren’t popular enough for people to bother uploading them.

I buy everything through Apple TV, and it looks and works great.

I’m perfectly happy to buy a movie for $4.99 and not futz with all that Usenet and torrenting stuff, managing and setting up a media server, etc.

I don’t even have a desktop computer to use as a media server lol, most people don’t any more.

Mosaic 100Mbps is the bare minimum I would recommend to anyone these days.

Well, yeah, that’s the slowest speed they even offer today lol

But it’s still enough for 4+ simultaneous 4K streams.

Mosaic

Web-Shooter Usenet isn’t even what most people are doing these days. They’re streaming torrents. Yes, they pay a provider who grabs the torrent and streams it to them but we are talking like $2-$3 a month. Things have evolved big time from the old days. Modern setups act just like a streaming service with near instant playback, complete with caches of things that others watched to speed it up even more.

hex0101

Web-Shooter Well, yeah, that’s the slowest speed they even offer today lol

The slowest they offer these days is 75/10. Internet Essentials for $14.95 a month for qualifying households.

Web-Shooter

Mosaic And where are they finding those torrents in the first place?

Just saying, all that time and effort just to avoid buying the movie for $4.99 seems silly to me.

I also think people should get paid for their work, as a video editor myself. I don’t want people pirating my work either.

Web-Shooter

hex0101 75/10 is still more than fast enough for 4K streaming and any normal residential use.

Mosaic

Web-Shooter There are apps that are easy enough to find.

New movies aren’t $4.99 by the way, they’re like $25 to rent now.

I’m not paying $25 to rent something and I’m not paying $30 to buy something I’ll watch once and never again. Not to mention that you don’t actually own it when you buy it, just until they kill the license. When prices come back to reality, I’ll pay, otherwise, I have no remorse.

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