Comcast Boosts xFi Speed With New WiFi6 Gateway

Comcast Corp. said Monday it will launch a next-generation broadband gateway, which will give consumers faster speeds, more capacity, and better streaming.

Comcast (CMCSA) said it will also be providing xFi Advanced Security at no additional cost to protect the connected devices used by 18 million of its broadband customers.

The new xFi Advanced Gateway is one of the first WiFi 6 certified devices in the U.S., Comcast said.

“We designed the next-generation Advanced Gateway to be the fastest, smartest and most powerful WiFi device on the planet to continue to deliver on our promise of bringing our customers a great broadband experience,” said Kunle Ekundare, Director of Product and Hardware Management, Comcast. “The xFi Advanced Gateway is truly the best Internet product we’ve ever built, and we’re thrilled to be bringing our customers into the future with WiFi 6.”

Meanwhile, Comcast said its free xFi Advanced Security feature provides automatic monitoring, blocking, and online threat detection for wired and WiFi connected devices in the home of its Xfinity Internet customers.

The entertainment giant last month said it plans to spend $2 billion on its coming Peacock service in the streaming outlet’s first two years, the entertainment giant’s chief financial officer said Monday.

“We will ramp quickly next year on spending on Peacock,” CFO Michael Cavanagh said at a UBS investor conference in New York. He said the company expects Peacock to break even by its fifth year, Bloomberg said.

Along with AT&T Inc.’s HBO Max, Peacock stands to be a relatively late entry in the burgeoning market for streaming-video services when it launches in April. Unlike paid-subscription rivals such as Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+ and Apple Inc.’s Apple TV+, Peacock will be free to Comcast cable subscribers. Cavanagh said the service would have various tiers of pricing for others.

Disney has said it plans to spend $1 billion on programming alone for the first year of Disney+, which launched last month and quickly signed up more than 10 million subscribers. Streaming behemoth Netflix heavily outspends its competitors, expecting to splash out $15 billion on programming this year.