Comcast Lifts Uploads To 5Mbps Amid Complaints Its Low-Income Plan Is Too Slow

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast is doubling download speeds and increasing upload speeds for the $10-per-month Internet Essentials plan that it sells to low-income subscribers. Comcast had faced criticism for keeping the plan's speeds at 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up during the pandemic, though even those speeds were an increase from the 15Mbps/2Mbps offered until March 2020. In today's announcement, Comcast said it is "doubling the program's Internet download speed to 50Mbps and increasing the upstream speed to 5Mbps for all new and existing customers at no additional cost." The speed upgrade "will be rolled out nationally beginning March 1," Comcast said.

Low-income users still face Comcast's 1.2TB data cap, which adds $10 to a monthly bill for each additional block of 50GB. But data-cap overage charges are capped at $30 per month for Internet Essentials subscribers, while the extra charges can go up to $100 for other customers. Information on how to qualify for Internet Essentials is available here. The new speed increase "is the sixth time in 10 years that Comcast has increased broadband speeds for Internet Essentials customers while keeping the cost of the service at $9.95 a month," the company said.
The report notes that Comcast has been offering two months free to new Internet Essentials customers ever since the pandemic started, and it plans on keeping that deal open until June 30, 2021.

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