Feb 282010
I need internet and comcast is the only provider where I live in indianapolis. They have three different levels or speeds, economy and then two above that that are more expensive. They claim that the lowest speed or economy as they call it is faster than DSL. Anybody have any comments about the economy speed at Comcast? Is it fast enough?
It depends on what you are doing online.
If you mostly just browse the web, send the odd email, keep in touch with friends on Facebook or twitter, then the economy tier is probably fine.
If you like watching streaming videos on hulu or youtube a lot, you might want to stick with their mainstream 6 Mbps service. Also, if you upload a lot of files like pictures or videos, or download a lot of software, then you’ll also benefit from the faster service.
I’d recommend their highest and fastest tier only if you are uploading and downloading lots of large files (like high resolution pictures, movies, videos, documents) or if you routinely connect to your office from home over a VPN and need to access lots of files over your corporate network.
One last consideration is if you are sharing your internet connection between several computers in your home. If lots of people in your house log on and use the internet all at the same time, then you’ll probably want to get a faster tier that will accommodate everyone all at once. If, on the other hand, it’s just for you and one computer, then the slower tier is probably fine.
Two things to note:
1) Comcast is in the middle of upgrading their internet service to DOCSIS 3. This means that customers on the 6 Mbps and 8 Mbps service will have their speeds increased for no extra charge. Customer on the economy tier won’t. So if you are currently on the 6 Mbps tier, you will start getting more for your money shortly (probably within a year or so if you haven’t already)
2) If your main concern in online gaming (like World of Warcraft or similar games), be aware that increasing your bandwidth will have very little effect on the performance of the game. Game performance is far more dependent on a completely different metric called “latency”, which is unaffected by the tier you subscribe to.
Funny you asked because I just switched to Economy though Comcast yesterday. There is a difference in speed, but it’s not that bad. It’s definitely worth the $25 versus the $44 for the next grade up, which is what I paid $20 for 6 months for.
I told the lady on the phone about my concerns with it being ungodly slow and she said her daughter has Economy and thinks it’s pretty good. So, unless you are an internet guru and are obsessed with speed and download constantly, I would suggest Economy. It’s worth the price. However, if you do a lot of downloading, your speeds will be obviously slower, but not much from what I can see. I say go for it. I am happy with it so far.