Cox boosts Internet speeds in N.E.

Cox Communications has rolled out changes to its residential high-speed Internet service that include the addition of Comcast Corp.’s “PowerBoost” speed-enhancement technology.
“Cox customers [with Preferred or Premier Internet service] will automatically enjoy reduced download times of large files such as music, movies and pictures,” said Cox Vice President of Marketing Doreen Studley. “The best part is, PowerBoost is free for all Preferred and Premier Cox High Speed Internet customers.”
The new features – available to New England customers with Cox Preferred or the faster Premier High Speed Internet service, at no extra charge – are part of a nationwide upgrade, the company said.
“We’re evaluating it for the business side as well,” Roger A. Iannetta Jr., a Cox high-speed data product manager, told Providence Business News in a telephone interview.
The basic download speed for Preferred and Premier customers is unchanged, he said. But now, when a customer begins to download a file, “PowerBurst checks the network,” Iannetta said, “and if there’s available bandwidth in the area, we’ll give that to our customer for a period of time – maybe five seconds or 10 seconds.” That will temporarily raise the download speed for Preferred customers by up to 100 percent, to as much as 10 megabits per second (Mbps), and for Premier customers by 35 percent, to as much as 20 Mbps.
The “boost” will continue until the download is complete or a certain limit is hit, Iannetta said. “For Preferred, it’s about 12.5 megabytes, for Premier, it’s 18.5 megabytes. Then, if there’s any additional download left, it’ll revert back to our standard speed.”
Cox said the download speed for customers with its Value package also has been upgraded, from 758 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps – an increase of nearly 98 percent.
In addition, the company said, it is adding a new Economy tier of service, at $9.95 per month, that targets entry-level users and those still using dial-up Internet service.
Cox Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, is a broadband communications and entertainment company. Additional information is available at www.cox.com and www.coxmedia.com.