What Is PowerBoost?

Recently SamKnows reported that the FCC found that PowerBoost™ can actually increase some customers' speeds by over 150% when downloading and over 200% when uploading.

Following the publication of this report, we wanted to share some of the history of this Comcast developed and patented technology. In the summer of 2003, a small group of Comcast Labs engineers had a simple idea to give customers a "jump start" by providing a burst of speed for typical, multi-megabyte file downloads and uploads. This team discovered that at any given time there was some unused capacity in our network that could be used to temporarily enable faster connection speeds. PowerBoost was born.

So what does this mean to our customers?

Well, if you're an Xfinity Internet customer, you're often able to download or upload files at faster connection speeds for no additional cost with the modem you already have. These bursts of speed can really make a noticeable difference when you're downloading, uploading and streaming larger files like certain software, games, music or photos. In fact, according to MIT, PowerBoost can accelerate the initial burst while a streaming file is buffered to contribute to a better viewing experience.

Be our guest, and put PowerBoost to the test by visiting any one of the various speed test websites, such as www.speedtest.net.

And be sure to stay tuned to Comcast Voices to learn more about PowerBoost and some of the Comcast technology innovators who developed it.