Hidden Costs to Your New Comcast Xfinity Router

[ed. I called Comcast a while ago with a technical problem and was told I needed to get this new router. I didn't get it, but managed to get the problem fixed anyway. Now it looks like these new routers are part of an initiative to build out a nationwide public WiFi network (commendable) at the expense of Comcast's customers (not so commendable).]

With the hopes of creating a nationwide public WiFi network, Comcast has been pushing new Xfinity WiFi routers into its customers’ homes that broadcast a public wireless network in addition to the home Internet connection. It’s an interesting idea that has been embraced by some, but has raised questions about security with others. As a bandwidth-obsessed engineer, my immediate inclination was to wonder where the heck the extra bandwidth for the public hotspot was coming from, and what kind of hidden electricity costs that might come with.

We ran some tests with one of these dual-signal routers in our office, and found that it was indeed costing Xfinity customers several dollars extra per month to support the public hotspot with this particular router. Not a huge deal on the individual level, but it’s worth noting that, when multiplied out by Comcast’s millions of residential customers, it seemed like subscribers might potentially be footing a bill in the tens of millions to roll out the ISP’s public WiFi network. A few weeks ago, we published a blog post with our findings, and we must have tickled the beast, because within an hour-or-two, I was on a call with Comcast.

Comcast Calling

The folks at Comcast reached out to let us know that we weren’t testing with their latest home router, and that they wanted to furnish us with the latest-and-greatest so we could re-test. Sure, why not? We wanted to present solid and accurate data, after all.

A few days later, an Xfinity tech replaced our existing hardware with a Cisco DPC3939B (XB3 is the residential variant, but we have the BWG business variant). We were told that the business and home versions are identical pieces of hardware that run slightly different software. This new Xfinity router box takes the place of four different components that we used to have:

• Cable modem for the Xfinity Hotspot
• WiFi access point for the Xfinity Hotspot
• Cable modem gateway for our business account
• Linksys access point that we provided

So, while they’ve certainly packed a lot in the new DPC3939B router, it’s also about the size of those four separate components duct-taped together!

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Image: uncredited