What Is the Standard Mbps Rate With Comcast Cable?

Comcast offers a range of products to make it easy to find the best Internet service. All Comcast plans run through fiber optic cable lines that never tie up your phone line. As of the date of publication, Economy Internet is the most basic plan. Performance Starter is next. Performance Internet suits most household users who watch movies online or with devices that link your television to movie services online. Blast offers incredibly fast service, but Extreme 50 and Extreme 105 are even faster.

When you upload or download information, that material breaks down into data "bits." These bits transmit over the fiber optic lines from one computer to another. One million bits equals one megabit. Downloads include videos, movies, shows or games you load to your computer from another service or website. Comcast's Economy Internet service provides top download speeds of 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps). Performance Starter increases that speed to 6 Mbps. Performance is faster with download speeds of up to 12 Mbps, followed by Blast at 20 Mbps. Extreme 50 and Extreme 105 are the fastest with speeds of 50 Mbps and 105 Mbps respectively.

Not every Internet user worries about upload speeds. If you transfer files from your computer to a website or another computer, that is uploading. Comcast Economy Internet offers upload speeds of 384 Kbps. One kilobit is 100,000 bits. Performance Starter and Performance upload rates are one to two Mbps. Blast provides upload speeds of 4 Mbps, while Extreme 50 and Extreme 105 offer upload speeds of 10 Mbps.

While you're watching movies or videos, the bit rate plays an important part in the quality. Most companies recommend having download rates of 5 Mbps to avoid pauses while the video plays or "streams." If you're watching a movie online or on your television, bit rates of 10 Mbps are better. Comcast Internet runs over cable lines. If your neighbors also use Comcast Internet, you're all sharing the same lines. During peak Internet times, your speeds may slow down. Powerboost is specific to Comcast Internet. When large file uploads or downloads slow your speeds, Powerboost offers a temporary increase to help speed things up.