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Comcast Turns Your $7/Month Wireless Gateway Into Their Public Wi-Fi Hotspot

Phillip Dampier June 10, 2013 Broadband Speed, Comcast/Xfinity, Consumer News, Data Caps, Wireless Broadband 6 Comments
Comcast Wireless Gateway (Model 2)

An older Comcast Wireless Gateway (Model 2)

Comcast customers may soon find themselves providing free Internet access to other Comcast customers under a new initiative announced today that will turn millions of homes into Wi-Fi hotspots.

The “xfinitywifi” project will activate a second 15-25Mbps Wi-Fi signal from Comcast’s XB2 and XB3 wireless gateways that any Comcast broadband customer can reach as long as they stay within 250-300 feet of the gateway.

“We’ve been able to add certain feature functionality to the firmware of our devices,” Tom Nagel, senior vice president of business development, told CED. “The way its architected is we sort of logically split the modem in two. On the private side, you still get the same things. You can do your own security, you can manage, you can do port forwarding and all the things that no one really understands but are available to you. On the public side what happens is it’s logically a separate network. We actually provision a separate service flow to that cable modem for the public side. If that public side uses up what we’ve given them, there is no getting from someone else.”

In simplified terms, Comcast is opening up a second dedicated Internet connection for its public Wi-Fi service that will not share your existing broadband service. The two networks will co-exist from the wireless gateway, and although the available bandwidth cannot be combined to increase connection speed, customers do have the option of connecting various wireless devices to either the home Wi-Fi or public Wi-Fi connection. The public Wi-Fi service is exempt from usage measurement, caps, and/or consumption-based billing at this time. (Comcast last year suspended usage caps in all of its service areas except Nashville and Tucson.)

In beta tests, Comcast claims customers did not object to sharing their Wi-Fi wireless gateways as long as it did not affect their speed and protected their privacy.

xfinity wifiNagel says the service was designed to address both concerns, noting a 50Mbps Blast customer will still have full access to 50Mbps service, regardless of how many wireless visitors are connected to the customer’s gateway.

“There’s also no leakage of the public and private security functions as well,” Nagel said. “We do two totally different security regimes in the box and there’s really no way to get in between the two. We do provide people the ability to opt out of the service but there have been very few people that have done that, like sub fractions of 1 percent.”

Comcast enables the new service with a firmware upgrade automatically sent to customers when an area is ready for a Wi-Fi launch. Customers in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Boston; Northern Virginia, Chicago, Atlanta; Delaware; and California will likely be among the first to receive the new service.

Some customers do have a problem with Comcast charging them for equipment Comcast is appropriating for its own benefit.

“This is a fine deal for Comcast, which can keep charging customers $7 a month for their gateway and benefit from millions of new hotspots they did not have to build themselves,” said Comcast customer David Tate. “If customers get wise and buy their own [gateway/cable modem], Comcast’s new Wi-Fi service will begin losing hotspots as customers return the equipment to avoid the fee. They should be charging a lot less or nothing at all for equipment if they want us to host their hotspots.”

Tate also believes Comcast will ruin its own service if they attempt to bring usage caps back.

“If Comcast brings back the cap, I wouldn’t want anyone else sharing my connection and I would avoid using Comcast’s Wi-Fi if they counted that usage against my allowance,” Tate explained. “If they exempt the wireless service from caps, customers can just connect to that network to avoid the cap so they would have a big loophole.”

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Mel
Mel
10 years ago

They also have not told you that the more data that goes through that modem, the more electrcity it uses.You will be paying the electric bill for them to provide free wifi.

John
John
10 years ago
Reply to  Mel

That’s not how that works….

Scott
Scott
10 years ago

Funny, so their magical gateway modem has ‘unlimited’ bandwidth now? And they have the capacity in all their service areas to offer ‘unlimited’ bandwidth and service to roaming wifi users? This is the same company that was trying to justify metered usage and caps right? … Riiight. I would never agree to offer such as service unless they were going to give me a 30-50% cut off my bill, and even then probably wouldn’t due to the security issues, are potential legal issues of illegal usage on your modem, on your line/service, which you’re completely responsible for. Last I checked… Read more »

Cicuta
Cicuta
9 years ago
Reply to  Scott

I just got the Comcast stupid email letting me know about the modem upgrade and as soon as I read it I said …. screw them! If other people want to use the Internet … then they can pay for it as simple as that. Also i know for a fact that wireless equipment are prone to interference and also the bandwidth of wireless is not as good as coax. Besides, I don’t need the so called Wifi. I am happy the way it is and if they want to force me to change my modem then I drop them… Read more »

Andrew Madigan
Andrew Madigan
10 years ago

I wonder what that does to the “private” wifi network. If they’re sharing an antenna I bet the private network gets to fight the public network for wireless bandwidth.

Chuck Willy
Chuck Willy
9 years ago

What does the service agreement say? I can charge any amount rent I want on something on my property. I’ll send them a bill for $1mil if my box isn’t free and second I’ll start a class action lawsuit against Comcast.

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