While there are certainly many reasons to gripe about Comcast, being forced to rent its modems shouldn’t be one of them. As Ars Technica, Stop the Cap! and other websites reported on Wednesday, a Comcast customer in Virginia caused a bit of a stir when he posted in the DSLReports forum that a Comcast customer service representative told him he’d have to rent one of Comcast’s modems for $8 a month if he wanted to take advantage of Comcast’s 105Mbps broadband service. As evidence for his claim, the user posted a Comcast bulletin supposedly issued on February 26th this year that said subscribers to its 105Mbps service may only use “Comcast issued equipment” because it “ensures that the specifications are always met and are not altered intentionally or unintentionally.”
However, BGR reached out to Comcast and it looks like this is all a big misunderstanding. Apparently the document posted by the DSLReports user dates back from 2010 when Comcast first launched its 105Mbps service and Comcast has since changed its policies then to allow customers to use whatever modems they want. Comcast had originally implemented the policy because it wanted to make sure that modems customers used were compatible with its 105Mbps service, which at the time was one of the fastest offered in the United States.
Comcast has also helpfully posted a list of modems that are compatible with its 105Mbps service here for anyone interested.
