4 Concerns About Comcast's Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspot Rollout

Logically, Comcast's Xfinity Wi-Fi public hotspot rollout makes perfect sense. By using devices that customers already have, it can blanket municipalities and other areas with robust Wi-Fi. As our Internet dependency increases, we need more widespread and speedy connections.

And of course, it's the perfect business model. Comcast gets a fairly cheap way to extend its network—by having its customers pay for the equipment!

Customers in select cities with Comcast-assigned wireless gateway modems have a primary, private wireless network and a secondary network. This second network is broadcast publically, and is available to those who are not even Comcast customers (on a time-limited basis or for a fee, however).

There are several concerns being raised about this service. Some are a bit ludicrous, but some are very legitimate. Here is a breakdown of the ones garnering the most concern

Increased Security Threat
Some have expressed concern about their home networks being more subject to security breaches. The truth is, even with a cable modem set to broadcast the public hotspot network, your home private network is unlikely to be any less or more secure than it already is.

In its FAQ section on its website about Xfinity Wi-Fi, Comcast states that the public wireless network is secured with 128-bit encryption. That means WPA/WPA2, which is the strongest wireless encryption method available. Of course, if you don't have a strong password, WPA2, or a firewall in place protecting your private network, you are at risk whether you have the Xfinity hotpost broadcasting or not.

A greater concern however, is that of physical security. People locate Comcast hotpots via an Xfinity app or through the Xfinity hotspot locator site. I would be concerned about my address being broadcast by the app or the website.

Comcast's vague statement on the matter is not reassuring. "We do not list subscribers' addresses on the hotspot location map or in the Xfinity Wi-Fi app. In the future we may use general indicators of Xfinity Wi-Fi Home Hotspot availability around a neighborhood, but only in a manner that assures the privacy of our customers."

That's a lot of marketing gobbledygook. If I were a customer opting into this program, I'd want specifics about any future updates to make sure my location remains private unless I give permission otherwise.

My Electric Bills Will Go Up
Not likely. Once you have a cable modem, that device is using a fixed amount of power. Think of a wireless router that allows you set up a guest network (which is essentially what these Xfinity cable modems are doing). Your router's power output isn't significantly affected whether you have a guest network enabled along with your regular, private wireless network.

My Performance Will Slow Down
This may be a legitimate concern, especially for areas that have lots of apartment buildings and multi-tenant dwellings within close proximity of one another. In my building, just about every apartment has a Wi-Fi router. Those routers are transmitting on the same channels for their 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals, leading to RF competition. Now, if you take that scenario and give everyone in that apartment another wireless network to broadcast, those networks are competing, too, and adding to interference. Comcast's FAQ about Xfinity's hotspots doesn't go into any details about channels and bands, but the company should be clear about how adding these hotspot networks affects the performance of existing WLANs—especially in business use.

Impedes on my Rights as a Customer
For some people, it just doesn't feel right, that a huge company like Comcast is using its customer base to expand its wireless coverage. I get that. However, we are some Wi-Fi-hungry people, and the demand is there. The biggest misstep on Comcast's part is by turning on the Xfinity Hotpot option by default, on the cable modem. That is hubris. That's essentially telling customers, "You know, we aren't even going to ask you if you want this, you'll just take the feature. Saves us from having to explain it to you."

This reminds me of how maddening I find it when ISPs give you a cable modem that also can function as a wireless router, and they enable the wireless routing, by default. Many people are unaware that their cable modem can function as a Wi-Fi router. So they buy a router—when they already have one on their home network. Two routers performing the same functions on the network can wreak all kinds of performance havoc. I am sure this setup has left many frustrated with their home-networking performance.

Xfinity public hotspots are a good way to massively roll out high-speed Wi-Fi. It will work best if Comcast and any other ISPs that jump on this bandwagon are as open and transparent as possible with their customers. However, with recent news about cable companies astroturfing consumer groups to fight net neutrality, the chances of such honesty is questionable.