Comcast is looking to improve their performance in home internet after they have improved performance in home video. They are looking to make home internet more personalized and offer a brand to their best internet. This is the reason why Comcast debuted their new Wi-Fi solution at the CES a few months ago.
The Telco giant tagged their new Wi-Fi solution as the “X1 of the Internet” and at the launch, it was named the Xfinity xFi platform. It is reported that the Xfinity xFi experience will include auto configuration of home internet, capabilities to monitor the bandwidth, parental controls, troubleshooting options, and ability to pause the Wi-Fi access all across the home. Users will be able to control these things from a website, with the help of an app, or with the X1 voice remote.
Comcast has also rebranded two of their wireless gateway devices that support xFi. Formerly, one of these devices was called XB3, but now it is called xFi Wireless Gateway. The other device, formerly called XB6, is also renamed to xFi Advanced Wireless Gateway.
One of the important things to be noted about the xFi launch is that Comcast is offering the service at no additional charges. In addition, they are making the service immediately available to all the ten million houses that have compatible hardware. It took about five years for Comcast to get X1 into ten million US homes, and with the xFi platform, Comcast will reach the milestone right from the first day of launch.
It is also reported that the xFi experience for the users will continue to evolve, as Comcast is planning to release xFi pods later this year. These pods can be paired with xFi gateway to extend the reach of the Wi-Fi across the house. This extension of the home network with the xFi pods is made possible partly due to the investment that Comcast has made in the startup company named Plume.
Plume’s technology is based on algorithms that continuously configure the Wi-Fi connection of a user. With the help of Plume’s technology, Comcast is offering a solution that can find if a device should be connected to the nearest Wi-Fi gateway or it should hop through an extender device to get a strong signal. xFi pods will be offering the users with more connectivity options, but the heart of the xFi platform would be the wireless gateways. With the xFi offering, Comcast is dreaming to become the best internet provider in the US.