When Gigabit Is Not Gigabit

Oh where oh where has my gigabit gone.
Oh where oh where can it be?

I was helping a client the other day with their Comcast/Xfinity Gig service.

They recently upgraded and asked me to take a look as to why they weren’t getting what they paid for.

I jumped in to take a look.

Come to find out that the Comcast/Xfinity Gig service they sell in our area in South Florida is only a gigabit service in name — not speed.

Meaning, that you don’t actually get a full gigabit of speed.

So I dug a little deeper and here’s what I found out.

It all comes back to good old cable television.

You see, cable television is delivered to homes and businesses through copper cable in the ground.

And that coaxial copper cable has limitations.

As technology has moved forward, cable companies have been upgrading to fiber optics to increase speeds.

But those fiber optics don’t run into your house or into your building 99.9% of the time.

Which leads me to the second reason you can’t get a full gigabit.

Cable modems.

The cable modems used to provide the Gig service only go so fast.

It’s a tech thing.

And so the net/net of all this is that — Comcast Xfinity Gig service maxes out at around 500 Mbps for download and 35 Mbps for upload.

Please note — that’s still really fast.

But it’s not a gigabit.

Which leaves us with one final question.

Is it worth it?

I’d say for the price it’s still a pretty good deal.

Even if the service doesn’t match the name.

If you need faster Internet speeds.

Check it out.

NOTE — Technology is always changing and with new standards and equipment speeds will increase over time.