This has probably been in several diaries but it's important enough to pass around again.
This happened last year in some cities (Houston, Seattle, Philadelphia) but it's now being rolled out elsewhere (San Francisco). If you're leasing your modem from Comcast, you are not only a cash cow for their expensive, slow, throttled internet service. They've now found a way to further milk their cash cow by turning your home into a public Wi-Fi hotspot without compensating you for offering this paid 'service' to the public.
If you're with TWC, expect this to happen with you should the merger go through.
A bit of background:
First, let’s run through the technical details of Comcast’s Xfinity WiFi Home Hotspot setup. Over the last couple of years, Comcast has been distributing the Arris Touchstone Telephony Wireless Gateway Modem to new customers. Comcast remotely programmed these modems to broadcast a new wireless network SSID — “xfinitywifi” — that gives about 10 minutes of free access to anyone, or unlimited access to other Comcast customers. Comcast says the new wireless network is completely separate from your existing home network, and that public WiFi users don’t have access to any shared files or resources. Exact details of the setup aren’t yet known, but it sounds like some kind of VLAN.
Now, let’s tackle the rather thorny questions raised by this scheme. Speaking to the Houston Chronicle, Comcast says this new service won’t slow down the residential customer’s connection. The official Xfinity WiFi Home Hotspot FAQ clarifies a few other points, too, such as the max limit on concurrent free WiFi users (five), and how to disable the feature (log into http://customer.comcast.com/ and click the Users & Preferences section). Comcast says that it alerted the first 50,000 users by post last month, and that less than 1% of customers opted out. It’s also worth noting that you’re exempt from Comcast’s new scheme if you use your own modem, too.
The FAQ does note, however, that “there can be some impact as more devices share WiFi” because both networks share the same slice of 2.4GHz or 5GHz spectrum. From what we know about WiFi congestion and the importance of using the right channel, just having one person using your Xfinity WiFi could significantly slow down your own WiFi network.
There could be some privacy and security concerns, too. Comcast has released an Xfinity WiFi app for finding nearby hotspots — and yes, if your residential modem has been co-opted by Comcast, it will show on the map.
I'm wondering just how vigorously Comcast 'alerted' their Houston customers to this scheme, or if it just appeared as fine print somewhere.
Quite an interesting concept, this is. You pay to lease their equipment, you pay for the electricity to run it, and Comcast makes a profit off of your investment. Quite a brazen scheme of corporate piracy, especially when you look at what they'll make from this new service for non-Comcast customers: $2.95 an hour, $7.95 for a daily pass, $19.95 for a weekly pass. The first two hours are free.
If you're worried about the security of your home network, here's what Comcast has to say about that:
Byrd says there shouldn't be security problems with the private network as long as the customer has already taken the proper precautions of having a strong password and up-to-date antivirus protection on computers.
This is reassuring!
I've read on some public forums that the online opt-out feature has had some glitches, necessitating a frustrating chain of calling the delightful Comcast customer service representatives to opt-out.
It would possibly be worth your while to let Comcast turn your home into a profit center if they used the profits to upgrade their network to fiber to allow you to enjoy a fast, reasonably priced 1gbps service. But no, this money is going right into the pockets of their executives and shareholders. No fast internet for you!
You know what Americans hate? Innovation. They hate it with a passion. All Americans wish they lived in 1700 and were still fending off disease with leaches and prayer.
Okay, so maybe that isn’t quite true, but, to hear Comcast CEO Irene Esteves and their cohorts talk about innovation, you would think that was the case. The cable company CEO this week declared that most American consumers don’t want or need 1Gbps Internet services such as those offered by Google Fiber and the Vermont Telephone Company.
If you are currently a Comcast customer and have leased your equipment from them you can either wrestle with them to opt-out of turning your home into a profit center or purchase and use your own equipment. I think either option is a good idea, at least until they give you a percentage back on what they make from your new public hotspot (which I expect to happen approximately when hell freezes over).