Comcast to raise broadband speed

With Baby Bell local phone providers making inroads with cheaper but slower DSL service, Comcast and other cable companies hope to fight on speed rather than price. Comcast's faster service, added at no extra cost to customers, will begin rolling out this quarter, the company announced on Sunday.

As previously reported, the nation's largest cable and broadband provider's current download speed of up to 3mbps (megabits per second) will jump to 4mbps. Upload rates of 256kbps (kilobits per second) will reach 384kbps, the company said. Customers of Comcast's more expensive 4mbps service will see a 50 percent increase to 6mbps downstream and 768kbps upstream.

Speed has been of the essence to the nation's major cable providers. Time Warner Cable said in December that it would raise its basic download speed to 5mbps from 3mbps. Months earlier, Cox Communications said it would raise its speed limit from 3mbps to 4mbps. Faster speeds may help justify cable subscriptions that average $45 a month when the Bells sell DSL--which typically clocks in at 1.5mbps--for as low as $26.95 a month.

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