Enlarge / A Comcast Xfinity service van in San Ramon, California on February 25, 2020. (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado )

Comcast has fessed up to another mistake on the national broadband map after previously insisting that false data it gave the Federal Communications Commission was actually correct.

Our report on February 9 showed that when residents in two Colorado cities objected to Comcast's coverage claims through the FCC challenge system, the company disputed those challenges even though it was impossible to order Comcast Internet service at the challenged addresses. As we previously wrote, Comcast only admitted to the FCC that it submitted false data in Arvada, Colorado, one day after we contacted the company's public relations department.

But Comcast hadn't yet admitted that it gave the FCC false data in Fort Collins, Colorado, at the time of our last report. That changed last week in a letter to the FCC. "Upon further review of the location ID in question, Comcast has determined that the location is currently not serviceable by Comcast," the company told the FCC.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Matthew Hillier can't get Comcast service at his home in Arvada, Colorado. But that didn't stop Comcast from claiming it serves his house when it submitted data for the Federal Communications Commission's new broadband map .

Comcast eventually admitted to the FCC that it doesn't serve the address—but only after Ars got involved. Comcast will have to correct its submission for Hillier's house, and a bigger correction might be needed because it appears Comcast doesn't serve dozens of other nearby homes that it claimed as part of its coverage area.

When Hillier looked up his address on the FCC map, it showed Comcast claims to offer 1.2Gbps download and 35Mbps upload speeds at the house. In reality, he makes do with CenturyLink Internet that tops out at 60Mbps downloads and 5Mbps uploads.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado )

Internet service provider horror stories have been a longtime staple at Ars Technica, and over the past 12 months we detailed some of the most horrific broadband customer experiences we've ever heard of.

Comcast, the largest home Internet provider in the US, figured prominently in these stories as usual. Let's take a look back at the biggest ISP horror stories we covered in 2022.

Comcast wanted man to pay $19,000 after falsely advertising service on his street

This article from April 6 detailed the plight of Jonathan Rowny after he and his wife and child moved from Virginia to Washington state. Rowny was victimized by a common problem in the broadband industry—ISPs falsely telling customers that service is available.

Enlarge / Comcast's xFi Advanced Gateway. (credit: Getty Images | Jeff Fusco )

People with low incomes can get free Internet service through Comcast and a government program, but signing up is sometimes harder than it should be because of confusion within Comcast's customer service department.

Massachusetts resident Tonia Williams qualified for the US government's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides $30 monthly discounts, and for Comcast's Internet Essentials Plus , a $30 monthly service for low-income people that is essentially free when combined with the ACP discount. But when she tried to use the ACP discount with Comcast's low-income service, Comcast incorrectly told her she wasn't eligible because she was already a Comcast customer.

Williams, a certified nursing assistant who was not working when she spoke to Ars, was eventually able to get free home Internet service for her family. But she faced several hassles and said she would have given up if it hadn't been for David Isenberg, a Falmouth resident who's been helping low-income people in his town navigate the process. Isenberg knew Williams because she was previously a home health aide taking care of Isenberg's wife's uncle.

Enlarge / Comcast service van parked on residential street in Lafayette, California, September 28, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado )

The Comcast "Broadcast TV" fee that isn't included in the company's advertised prices is rising again, tacking as much as $27 onto the monthly bills of cable TV users. Comcast's Broadcast TV and Regional Sports Network fees combined could add nearly $40 to a customer's monthly TV bill after next month's price hikes, all while Comcast advertises much lower prices than people actually pay.

"Comcast has started notifying customers and municipalities that it plans to raise video and Internet prices next month, including a whopping $7.35 a month increase for the Broadcast TV fee in one town," a TV Answer Man article said on Saturday. The $7.35-per-month increase is in Taunton, Massachusetts, where Comcast said the Broadcast TV fee will rise from $18.65 to $26.

The Broadcast TV fee is rising from $24.95 a month to $27.25 a month starting on December 20 in Sandown, New Hampshire, a letter from Comcast to town government officials said. In Sandown, the Regional Sports Network fee is rising from $11.85 to $12.

Enlarge / A Comcast Xfinity service van in Sunnyvale, California, in November 2018. (credit: Getty Images | Sundry Photography)

Comcast has a problem—it isn't signing up many new broadband customers. But Comcast also has a solution—get more money from existing subscribers.

Comcast failed to add any broadband customers in Q2 2022, holding steady at 32,163,000 residential and business Internet customers combined. In its Q3 earnings report released yesterday, Comcast said it gained only 14,000 broadband users in the latest quarter. Comcast also lost 561,000 video customers and 316,000 VoIP phone customers.

That's why Comcast executives focused on ARPU (average revenue per user) in an earnings call yesterday . With new customers few and far between, Comcast is aiming for growth in the average amount each existing customer pays.

Enlarge / Comcast's xFi Advanced Gateway with Wi-Fi 6E. (credit: Comcast)

For Comcast Internet customers frustrated by the cable service's slow upload speeds, there have been some welcome announcements recently. But the availability of faster Comcast uploads has a catch—users can only get the higher upstream speeds by purchasing xFi Complete, which adds $25 to monthly broadband costs.

"As markets launch, Xfinity Internet customers who subscribe to xFi Complete will have their upload speeds increased between 5 and 10 times faster," an announcement last week said. "xFi Complete includes an xFi gateway, advanced cybersecurity protection at home and on the go, tech auto-upgrades for a new gateway after three years, and wall-to-wall Wi-Fi coverage with an xFi Pod [ Wi-Fi extender ] included if recommended. Now, another benefit of xFi Complete is faster upload speeds."

Comcast is deploying the speed upgrade in the Northeast US over the next couple of months. Plans with 10Mbps upload speeds will get up to 100Mbps upload speeds once the new tiers roll out in your region—if you pay for xFi Complete. Comcast told Ars that faster upload speeds will come to customer-owned modems "later next year" but did not provide a more specific timeline.

Enlarge / Fiber conduits being installed for Los Altos Hills Community Fiber. (credit: Los Altos Hills Community Fiber)

Sasha Zbrozek lives in Los Altos Hills, California, which he describes as "a wealthy Silicon Valley town," in a house about five miles from Google's headquarters. But after moving in December 2019, Zbrozek says he learned that Comcast never wired his house—despite previously telling him it could offer Internet service at the address.

Today, Zbrozek is on the board of a co-op ISP called Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF), which provides multi-gigabit fiber Internet to dozens of homes and has a plan to serve hundreds more. Town residents were able to form the ISP with the help of Next Level Networks , which isn't a traditional consumer broadband provider but a company that builds and manages networks for local groups.

Zbrozek's experience with Comcast led to him getting involved with LAHCF and organizing an expansion that brought 10Gbps symmetrical fiber to his house and others on nearby roads. Zbrozek described his experience to Ars in a phone interview and in emails.

Enlarge / Comcast's xFi Advanced Gateway. (credit: Getty Images | Jeff Fusco )

Comcast announced today that it has tested "the final technical component necessary to deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds" and said it's on track to deliver multi-gigabit download and upload speeds to at least some cable customers "before the end of 2023." The test using Broadcom equipment delivered download speeds of 6Gbps and uploads of 4Gbps, Comcast said.

Cable broadband lags far behind fiber-to-the-home in upload speeds , a frustration for many Internet users who lack access to fiber. Comcast and other cable companies have been promising a major upgrade to uploads for years without ever saying exactly when the improvement would reach customers.

Comcast is starting to get a bit more specific—although that "end of 2023" promise doesn't specify what percentage of customers will get the upgrade when it first rolls out. Upgrading Comcast's entire cable territory is expected to be a multi-year process.