Comcast has announced that by the end of next month it will have started rolling out its wideband service, which has download speeds of up to 50 Mbps, in the state of Washington.

 

Comcast (News - Alert) has recently leapt from broadband to wideband, also known as next-generation DOCSIS 3.0., to increase the download speeds for users.

 

Earlier this year, Comcast rolled out wideband in Minneapolis-St. Paul. And in October, the cable provider extended the service to areas in Boston, southern New Hampshire, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Now, Comcast says, the wideband is heading toward Washington.

 

In December, Comcast says, the new services will be available to residential homes and businesses throughout the communities that Comcast serves. From Bellingham to Aberdeen (News - Alert) to Bremerton and Spokane and all points in between, customers will be surfing the web even faster, the cable provider said in a statement.

 

Interestingly, the Wideband has the potential to enable Comcast to double speeds for the majority of existing high-speed Internet customers at no additional cost. 

 

"Wideband utilizes our fiber optic network that is already in the ground in neighborhoods across our footprint. With this next generation of service, our customers' online experience is dramatically enhanced. Best of all, these faster Internet speeds are available to all of our customers throughout the state, no matter where they live," said Len Rozek, Senior Vice President of Comcast's Washington market.

 

Comcast has 24.4 million cable customers, 14.7 million high-speed Internet customers, and 6.1 million Comcast Digital Voice customers. Wideband is likely to encourage more number of subscribers to sign up for the service in the days to come. Wideband is currently available in two tiers for residential customers: Ultra and Extreme 50.

 

The Extreme 50 enables customers to download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter of seconds. Those with Ultra will get up to 22 Mbits/s of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed for $62.95 per month.

 

Comcast said business customers can sign up for the plan (Deluxe 50 Mbps / 10 Mbps) for $189.95 per month, which includes a full suite of features and support.