If you want the fastest broadband speed around, it’s going to cost you a lot more than a pretty penny.
Comcast has revealed the price of its 2-gigabit per second Internet service, dubbed X1 Gigabit Pro. The company is charging $299.95 a month for the service — or about $3,600 a year. And that’s not all — Subscribers have to pay a $500 installation fee and another $500 activation fee.
By contrast, Google charges $70 a month for Google Fiber, which offers 1-gigabit per second speeds but is not yet available in the Bay Area. AT&T charges $110 a month for its 1-gigabit GigaPower broadband service in Cupertino. With that service, customers agree to allow AT&T to track their online activities for marketing purposes; if they opt out of that tracking, AT&T will charge them about $140 a month.
Comcast itself charges $50 a month for its 150-megabit-per-second service.
The cable giant has steadily ramped up its broadband speeds over the years. But the move to gigabit service, announced in April, is a big jump for the company. Until this spring, the fastest service you could get through Comcast in the Bay Area was the 150-Mbps offering.
But the company has come under pressure from both Google and AT&T, both of which are touting their new gigabit services. Google is planning to expand Fiber to the South Bay, including to parts of San Jose, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto. AT&T has said it plans to expand GigaPower to other Bay Area communities.
In all three cases, though, gigabit broadband speeds are only being offered in certain areas and to certain residents; none of the three broadband providers has committed to offering the high-speed service to all or even most residents in particular cities.
In the case of Comcast, to get X1 Gigabit Pro, customers will have to be located within a third of a mile from one of the company’s fiber optic lines.
Photo courtesy of Comcast.
