According its announcement, Comcast will offer speeds of up to 2 Gbps to homes and businesses in 34 cities and towns by the end of this year. Comcast plans to make these services available to more than 50 million homes and businesses by the end of 2025. And soon it will significantly boost both upload and download speeds, as Comcast stated it would begin offering 10G-enabled multi-gig symmetrical services in 2023.
For U.S. consumers, Comcast's announcement portends the realization of the much-anticipated, high-speed, and high-capacity cable 10G platform, which will offer a stiff competition to fiber broadband services and fixed wireless access (FWA) services. (As an aside, NCTA observed in comments to the FCC in July of this year that cable broadband networks also rely on fiber-rich facilities, as cable customers use fiber for about 98-99% of the data transmission route). And a tremendous upshot for Comcast as well as for cable broadband subscribers is that the 10G upgrades do not require extensive digging or construction in and around households that it already reaches.
Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long has helpfully written in more detail about the tremendous potential service capabilities and economic value that will be generated by cable 10G networks. See Mr. Long's September 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "'10 G' Can Help Future-Proof Broadband Infrastructure" and his October 2020 blog post, "Study Predicts that Cable '10G' Platform Will Generate Substantial Economic Benefits." Importantly, and as Comcast's announcement indicated, 10G will be combined with ultra-fast and capacious Wi-Fi 6E capabilities. Mr. Long has excellently described Wi-Fi 6E capabilities in his February 2020 Perspectives "Wi-Fi 6E Can Modernize Unlicensed Wireless" and his January 2022 blog post, "D.C. Circuit Decision Clears the Way for a Wave of Wi-Fi 6E Devices."
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