Comcast announced the addition of new features on its home broadband gateway to help customers optimise and extend use of their wireless networks. The new experience will be automatically enabled in the first half of 2017 for the around 10 million customers with a compatible Xfinity Wireless Gateway.
By the end of the year, Comcast expects over 15 million of its broadband customers will have access to the new features, after it starts rolling out the new Advanced Wireless Gateway. The new router, based on the Intel Puma 7 SoC, supports Wi-Fi at up to 9 Gbps as well as voice, home monitoring and automation applications. Comcast will roll out the gateway along with the upgrade of its network to Docsis 3.1.
The wireless router can be controlled over a smartphone app, the web or the X1 voice remote. Functions include adding Wi-Fi extenders, testing wireless signal strength and troubleshooting coverage problems, personalising devices on the network and checking how long or often they are used, setting up rules such as controlling children's internet access and establishing a first line of defence to protect devices on the network without their own security software.
Comcast said the new features will help the gateway serve as a home networking platform to manage the growing number of smart devices. It also plans to make the new features available to other providers who license its X1 platform.
