Xfinity Rolls Out Free Speed Boost for Mobile and Internet Customers

Xfinity just boosted speeds for 20 million internet and mobile customers, and it did it without raising prices.

The changes mean upload speeds of up to 35Mbps for all home internet plans, compared to the previous max upload speed of 20Mbps. Better upload speeds make it easier to host videoconferences, livestream gameplay, post videos to social media, and manage large files if you work from home.

Download speeds are getting faster on some plans, too, with an increase of 100Mbps each on the Connect More, Fast, Gigabit, and Gigabit Extra plans.

Here’s a look at the new home internet speeds:

Xfinity’s pay-as-you-go plans are also getting a boost, with options at either 100Mbps or 200Mbps of download speed.

Speed boost for Xfinity mobile customers

There’s good news for Xfinity mobile and Comcast business mobile customers, too. Anytime your Xfinity mobile device is connected to an Xfinity router, new Wi-Fi PowerBoost tech will kick in, and you could get speeds up to 1Gbps (even if you subscribe to a lower tier for residential or business internet).

That boost will work for any routers that are part of Xfinity’s network of 23 million hotspots. You can log onto those with any active Xfinity login—you don’t need to be an Xfinity mobile customer—but the PowerBoost is just for Xfinity Mobile and Comcast Business Mobile customers.

“Our faster download and upload speeds, combined with our world-class WiFi equipment, ultra-low-lag Internet experience, and WiFi PowerBoost that delivers speeds up to a gig, are providing customers with a converged connectivity experience that we believe is unmatched in the industry,” said Emily Waldorf, senior vice president of Consumer Products, Comcast Connectivity and Platforms.

Xfinity says in a press release that the speed boosts are thanks to “years of research, technological breakthroughs, and massive investments, including more than $80 billion over last decade to build the nation’s largest converged wireless and wireline network.”

Xfinity’s mobile boost brings it up to par with Spectrum Mobile

Xfinity’s WiFiPowerBoost comes a few years after rival cable-internet provider Spectrum announced Spectrum Speed Boost for its mobile customers. Both programs offer mobile speeds of up to 1Gbps when customers log onto a compatible router anywhere in the network. For Spectrum, that network of mobile hotspots is 500,000-strong.

When Xfinity Mobile or Spectrum Mobile devices aren’t connected to Wi-Fi, they connect by piggybacking onto Verizon’s mobile network through MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) agreements.

How to get free mobile lines from each provider

If you subscribe to Xfinity internet at the Connect More tier or higher, you can get a line of Xfinity Mobile free for a year and you’ll automatically get the Xfinity PowerBoost benefits.

If you subscribe to Spectrum internet, you can get one line of unlimited mobile service free for a year, and you can add Spectrum Spood Boost capability at your home by paying $10 extra per month for Spectrum Advanced WiFi.

My take: Hotspots are the real benefit here

I love faster internet—don’t get me wrong—but I’m not sure how much real customers will benefit from this speed boost from Xfinity or the one Spectrum announced for business customers last month. No one is going to complain about another 100Mbps of download speed and another 15Mbps of upload speed, but you may not notice a big difference on your devices.

That’s because there are all kinds of limitations on speed that don’t have to do with the max speed of your home internet plan. For instance, connecting over Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet will mean slower speeds, and so will having greater distance between your device and your router. If you have an older phone or gaming console, that will also slow things down. And don’t forget about the speed of the rest of the internet—you’ll never enjoy faster speeds than the websites you’re visiting, platforms you’re streaming, and games you’re playing can serve up.

There is one factor that makes faster speeds matter, and that’s the number of devices on your connection. If your home network has been slowing down when you add more devices, this speed boost might make a real difference!

All that aside, one of the biggest benefits of subscribing to either Xfinity or Spectrum is their massive hotspot networks.

If you live in an area where Xfinity or Spectrum is available and keep running into data limits on your mobile phone, now is a great time to switch. You probably won’t notice the 1Gbps speeds, to be honest, but you will notice a difference between Wi-Fi speeds and 4G or 5G (and you’ll save a lot on mobile data in the process).