Comcast to Raise Cable Speeds

Following in the footsteps of Time Warner, Comcast plans to boost the speed of its broadband cable offerings by at least 30 percent. Standard cable customers will see their connections jump from 3Mbits to 4Mbits per second, with upload speeds of 384Kbps. Subscribers of Comcast's 4Mbits per second offering will see an increase of 2Mbits, bringing download speeds up to 6Mbits per second.

The faster speeds are expected to reach customers later this year in a effort to keep users from switching to DSL, which runs on existing phone lines and is often cheaper than its cable counterpart. But Comcast and Time Warner aren't the only ones looking to provide incentives to subscribers; Cox Communications said it would also raise download limits to 4Mbits per second.