By Arshad Mohammed
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Comcast Corp. said yesterday that it has boosted speeds on its cable modem service in Reston without raising prices, in the face of fresh TV and Internet competition from Verizon Communications Inc.

The announcement is the latest escalation of the battle between cable companies such as Comcast and phone companies such as Verizon to offer packages of TV, Internet and phone service as they move into each other's traditional businesses.

Philadelphia-based Comcast said it has doubled downstream speeds for its premium customers to 16 megabits per second and raised upstream speeds to 1 megabit per second from 768 kilobits per second.

Downstream refers to data such as e-mail, photographs or streaming video flowing from the Internet to users while upstream refers to data going in the other direction.

Comcast's standard customers get an unchanged 6 megabits per second for downloads, but their upstream speeds have doubled, to 768 kilobits per second, said Comcast spokesman Jim Gordon.

Comcast's move appeared to be a reaction to Verizon, which began offering fast Internet service in July and cable TV service in November using its new fiber-optic network in parts of Reston.

While not precisely comparable, Verizon's prices appear to be lower than Comcast's.

Comcast premium customers pay $67.95 a month for stand-alone Internet service, $62.95 with voice over Internet protocol phone service and $52.95 with cable TV. Standard customers pay $59.95 for stand-alone Internet service, $52.95 with VOIP and $42.95 with cable TV.

Verizon offers 5 megabits per second downstream and 2 megabits upstream for $39.95 a month on a stand-alone basis and $34.95 as part of a package with telephone service.

It also sells 15 megabits per second downstream and 2 megabits upstream for $49.95 on a stand-alone basis and $44.95 with a telephone package.