A Local Perspective on Xfinity

Here’s the email that Steve Kipp, Washington State VP for Communications, sent to a local tech reporter:

XFINITY is launching in this market right now. In the coming weeks, you will begin to see the new brand on our trucks, in advertising and on the uniforms of our cable installers and technicians. XFINITY is a new brand for our technology platform and products. We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars into improving our fiber optic network in Washington and plan to continue to make investments and improvements in our network for years to come. The XFINITY brand is a way for us to wrap all of those improvements under one umbrella.

Here is a link to more about the brand on our company blog: http://blog.comcast.com/2010/02/comcast-launches-xfinity.html

We are rolling out the new branding in markets like Seattle that have launched DOCSIS 3.0 and completed the World of More (digital migration of channels) project. In fact, that project, really paved the way for XFINITY by giving us the extra bandwidth we needed on our network to add more channels and increase Internet speeds.

We already deliver Internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps down in Washington, more than 100 channels in high definition, thousands of programs on Comcast ON DEMAND and a high-speed 4G wireless data service.

I think it is important to note that XFINITY also is a promise to our customers that we will continue to innovate and offer new product improvements. Here are some of the future product enhancements we are planning for the Washington market under the XFINITY brand:

· Download speeds to 100 Mbps or even faster;

· More channels in high definition;

· Offer as many as 50 to 70 multi-cultural channels;

· Significantly more video on demand choices, increasing from about 10,000 today to more than 20,000 and beyond;

· More television shows and movies available on Fancast XFINITY TV that allows our customers to watch shows online or while on the road.

· New converged and wireless features that let our customers’ TV, phone and Internet work seamlessly together in new and innovative ways. (Examples of this already launched in Seattle include Universal Caller ID on the television and our High-Speed 2go™ wireless service.)