Comcast Announces Extreme 50 High Speed Internet For Bay Area

By: Rob Adams
Staff Writer
Published: Mar 6, 2009

Comcast announced that its Extreme 50 high-speed Internet service is available for the Bay Area. The modern wideband service will also double speeds for existing customers at no additional cost.

Comcast Corp announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its Extreme 50 high-speed Internet service into the Bay Area. The brand new wideband will be available for businesses on March 10, and existing customers will be upgraded with double the speed at no extra cost. Wideband is the next generation DOCSIS 3.0 which provides new speed tiers for Internet customers.

"Wideband utilizes our existing fiber-optic network in neighborhoods across our footprint. With this next generation of service, our customers' online experience is dramatically enhanced," Steve White, Senior Vice President of Comcast's California Region, said in a statement..

Comcast Extreme 50 will deliver high-speed Internet of up to 50 Mbps, and 22 Mbps for its Ultra service plan.

Extreme 50 will offer Bay Area customers 50 Mbps of downstream and up to 10 Mbps of upstream. The monthly rate for the new service is $139.95. Comcast also offers the Ultra package which delivers 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at $62.95 per month.

The new high-speed Internet services are ready for use in San Jose-Silicon Valley, portions of the East Bay and Monterey-Salinas. Wideband now covers a radius starting with the Monterey Peninsula to the Tri-Valley. Comcast will also chart other areas of the Bay Area later this year.

"And this is just the beginning. Wideband, combined with our fiber-optic network, gives us the capability of meeting the needs of our customers for many years to come by offering even faster speeds in the future," White said.

Comcast will also offer a new business class tier for companies with the Deluxe 50 package. This will furnish businesses with 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps tier for $189.95 per month. The business service includes Microsoft Corp's Communication Services, corporate-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing, firewall protection, and static IP addresses.