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by arctia 3087 days ago
SF-specific. Comcast has to step up because competition is fierce.

Even just 30 miles south from SF, Comcast is crap because there's less competition there.

1 comments

28.4 miles south from SF (according to Google Maps driving directions from "San Francisco"), I've got gig down/40 up from Comcast. And the only competition is ATT DSL (yes, I'm like 2000 feet from the CO and they'll only give me 40mbit).

Comcast advertises on broadcast TV all over the bay area "gigabit now available in your area". So I'd think penetration is pretty high now.

Now, I'd rather pay pretty much anyone other than Comcast, and in particular I'd rather not pay $170 for gigabit, and I'd rather have symmetric FTTH, but hey, someone finally brought the bandwidth and I put my money where my mouth is.

They're still pretty awful anywhere they can get away with it. In the Boston area, the best upstream I've ever been able to get from Comcast is 10Mbps (real-world 12Mbps) regardless of package. So I hope you don't like to use video chat, or Twitch streaming, or the like.
Comcast advertises on broadcast TV all over the bay area "gigabit now available in your area". So I'd think penetration is pretty high now.

I wouldn't read too much into that. Here in Boston, the Verizon vans have sported "get FiOS now!" advertisements for more than a decade.

But FiOS is simply not available in most of the area.

> only give me 40mbit

In most of the US you'd be lucky to break 5Mbit with DSL even in close proximity to the CO.