Expert Overview of Xfinity's Services
As the Comcast coverage map above makes clear, Xfinity is the largest cable company in the USA. The Comcast Internet availability area covers 39 states and offers service to a population of 112.1 million, with the widest statewide coverage in California, Florida, Illinois, and 36 other states as of 2020.
Comcast delivers service over a predominantly Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) network, as well as maintaining a large public WiFi network for Xfinity customers.
Xfinity vs Comcast: Is Xfinity the Same as Comcast?
The Xfinity brand is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. While Comcast focuses on a wide range of services and products including business services and data transit, Xfinity is focused on residential services. Comcast formerly marketed their residential and business Internet plans under the “Comcast” name. They rebranded to “Xfinity” in 2010. [1]
Xfinity Services
Xfinity from Comcast offers three primary services:
Internet service: Xfinity offers broadband cable Internet with speeds commonly in the 100–1,000 Mbps range.
Television service: Xfinity offers digital cable TV, as well as the smart TV platform Xfinity X1.
Phone service: Xfinity offers digital voice (VoIP) landline phone service throughout their coverage area.
Xfinity also offers a home security suite called Xfinity Home. This service is a “smart home” technology that makes an alarm system and security camera network available and controllable from a subscriber’s mobile devices. Xfinity Home also integrates closely with their next-gen TV offering, Xfinity X1, allowing you to manage the system through your TV or by voice using the X1 remote.
Recently, Xfinity has been upgrading their digital cable TV offerings to a smart TV platform called Xfinity X1, which they describe as an “entertainment operating system.” X1 is available in most parts of the Comcast coverage map. The X1 TV service is centered around an all-in-one DVR set-top TV box that combines your Internet and TV service into one interface and makes it accessible from all the TVs in your home. Xfinity X1 features Netflix integration and Xfinity’s own on-demand content library.
Xfinity Contract And Bundle Options
Xfinity has both contract and contract-free service options, although the details vary from area to area in the Xfinity coverage area map shown above. Some of the best monthly pricing comes for customers who get “bundled” TV and Internet service on a one or two year contract.
Xfinity bundle plans are good for long-time residents, but less ideal for students or renters who may need to relocate unexpectedly during that contract, which can result in an early termination fee. For these customers, Xfinity also has contract-free plans.
Xfinity contract plans are usually around $10/month more expensive, but allow you to cancel service at any time without a penalty.
Xfinity Network Technology
Xfinity is a cable provider, and their network leverages existing coaxial networks. Comcast originally built coaxial networks for transporting cable television to TV subscribers. Now, Xfinity uses these cables to deliver digital data and Internet connections throughout the Comcast coverage area. This is possible thanks to DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification), a technology that allows these cables to be used to transport high-bandwidth digital data.
The backbone of Comcast’s network is made up of fiber lines throughout the USA. Their ownership of intercity fiber lines makes them a “tier 1” Internet provider. Direct ownership of national fiber lines allows Comcast to deliver data throughout the US cheaply and efficiently, as well as selling data transit and CDN (Content Delivery Network) services. This is part of the reason Comcast rebranded as “Xfinity” for their residential services, while the more niche telecom services like data transit and CDN service are sold under the “Comcast” brand name.
For Xfinity customers, this means that their data only travels on coaxial cables in the “last mile” between Xfinity’s local fiber lines and an individual subscriber residence. This final hop over coaxial functions as a bottleneck, on upload speed in particular. However, since it’s a relatively short hop, the speeds offered by Xfinity are much higher than more limited technologies like DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) and in many cases the download speeds come close to those offered by pure Fiber to the Home (FTTH) providers.
Areas marked as “covered” in our Comcast Xfinity availability maps have coverage for residential and/or business service. These maps do not include fiber lines used by Comcast for transit purposes.
Xfinity Consumer Reviews
Out of 166,847 current Xfinity customers we’ve verified and polled, 41.4 percent gave their experience as an Xfinity customer positive reviews. This type of approval rating is relatively normal for the Internet services industry, as compared to the overall average approval rating of 48.4 we’ve collected for all providers.
When it comes to streaming, Xfinity fairs well and earns a rating of 8 on the Netflix ISP leaderboards. They have an ACSI (American Customer Service Index) rating of 59. Both of these Xfinity ratings and reviews are current as of Dec, 2020.
Xfinity Customer Service
Comcast has a relatively low reputation for customer service, although approval ratings and reviews have been improving since the launch of the Xfinity brand in 2010.
In order to handle the customer service needs of their enormous subscriber base, the company uses local and nationally based call centers and tech support operators, as well as international call centers, depending on the customer issue.
Xfinity uses a combination of contractors and employees to handle on-site installation and maintenance of residential services.
Comcast Internet Essentials
Comcast participates in the Internet Essentials program, which makes reduced-cost home Internet access available to in-need consumers who meet certain income criteria. Specifically, Comcast offers their reduced cost access plans to consumers who are eligible as participants in the National School Lunch Program. The purpose of this program is to make Internet access available for school-age children who can benefit from Internet access for educational purposes.
Xfinity Reputation
While the overall brand image and public perception of Xfinity and Comcast has been improving in the last five years, Xfinity has faced criticism for practices like “data caps,” which place upward limits on how much data subscribers can use in a given month.
Data caps, zero-rating, and similar practices are largely disliked by customers but becoming standard in the residential broadband industry, with providers like Xfinity citing their use as a necessary strategy in balancing network congestion from dramatic increases in network usage due to video streaming.
Xfinity’s latest products and services such as X1 and Xfinity Home have been heavily focussed on “smart” tech and a cord-cutter-friendly user experience. This is widely viewed as a promising strategy, particularly since cable providers are often seen as “holdouts” against new technologies that cut profits from legacy services. Xfinity currently sets data caps several times higher than the average customer’s data use and rarely enforces them strictly.
Comcast Coverage Map FAQ
Here are some frequently asked questions we receive about our Comcast Xfinity availability maps. Please note that for Comcast availability by address, the most granular data we have currently is at the census block level — this is why our search tools ask for zip codes rather than full addresses.
How does the Comcast coverage map measure availability?
We measure population covered by the population in a census block. If a census block has Xfinity coverage, we tally the population in that block (according to census data) as “covered.” Due to unrecorded moves and residents, it’s not possible to output 100% accurate population coverage data.
How granular is the Comcast availability map?
Our Comcast coverage maps record availability at the census block level. If Comcast Xfinity is available at any addresses in a census block, we mark that block as “covered.” In some cases, not all houses are wired for service, especially in areas on the edge of Comcast’s coverage area. See the map above to see if you location in near the border of Xfinity’s coverage footprint.
Comcast Availability By Address
To see if Comcast Xfinity services are available at your address, enter your zip code in the Internet service comparison tool at the top of this page. We will output all the providers in your area, including Xfinity availability, if applicable.
Comcast Xfinity has the widest network availability in [ProviderTopStates. Their footprint covers a population of 112.1 million and is strongest at suburban and urban addresses where coaxial networks are most common.
Xfinity’s services tend to be most reliable in urban areas where they face competition from other providers such as Verizon Fios and AT&T. Proximity to fiber in these areas also allows them to deliver overall stronger service. Since cable connections are sometimes shared between houses in close proximity, customers may experience slower speeds during “peak use” times — typically 5–9PM — when a large percentage of nearby subscribers are simultaneously streaming high-bandwidth video.
To see if Comcast has availability at your address, see the Xfinity coverage map above or enter your address in our provider search engine.