Comcast says its xFi Advanced Gateway is the ‘fastest, smartest and most powerful Wi-Fi device on the planet’
LAS VEGAS – Comcast representatives took time out of the nonstop Consumer Electronics Show activity to sit down with RCR Wireless News to talk about the company’s next-generation, high-capacity xFi Advanced Gateway, announced yesterday. According to Comcast, the number of connected devices within the home will continue to increase, heightening the need for better cybersecurity and improved network capacity and control.
The xFi Advanced Gateway is Wi-Fi 6-enabled and is, according to the company, capable of delivering multi-gigabit speeds. Further, Comcast will include, at no extra charge, xFi Advanced Security, a feature that automatically protects devices from online threats, for any customer leasing an xFi gateway.
“It’s one of the best gateways on the market,” boasted Matt Zelesko, Comcast CTO, “and it’s got Wi-Fi 6 now.”
The Gateway has dual-band antennas that support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port to support wired speeds greater than 1 Gbps. It also has Bluetooth LE and Zigbee radios capable of connecting to virtually any IoT device, as well as switchable mid-split support between 42 MHz and 85 MHz to allow greater upstream throughput.
Equally important these days, the latest Gateway sports a similar sleek design as the original, meant to blend into the home. “We call it ‘techorating’,” joked Patti Loyack, VP of IP Services at Comcast.
Zelesko explained that Comcast is aware of the amount of complexity being introduced to people’s lives with the number of smart devices in the house, and in response, is dedicated to providing customers with more control over their network. “Pretty soon, you’re not going to be able to buy a device that isn’t connected to the internet,” he said.
Not only will the increase of connected devices bring more opportunity for cybersecurity threats, but, as Zelesko pointed out, many of these devices don’t have user interfaces at all, making it particularly challenging to gain insight into performance and security.
“We think the right way to protect against that is at the gateway, rather than try to do it in each one of the clients,” he continued.
Using the gateway to protect against cybersecurity threats also contributes to Comcast’s efforts to evolve broadband into a set of services that allow customers to manage their increasingly complex digital home and life.
The gateway includes xFi, a user-friendly, digital dashboard with features like parental controls and content filters. When combined with the xFi Advanced Security, the xFi Gateway becomes the control center for you home Wi-Fi ecosystem.
On the xFi dashboard, users can expect to see a daily list of digital security-related actions that were taken each day and to receive notifications meant to prevent phishing attacks and other security breaches. Additionally, the xFi Advanced Security platform blocks remote access to smart devices from unknown/dangerous sources and monitors devices in real-time, delivering alerts when devices behave in unusual or unexpected ways.
“We designed the next-generation Advanced Gateway to be the fastest, smartest and most powerful Wi-Fi device on the planet,” said Kunle Ekundare, director of product and hardware Management at Comcast, in a press release. “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 Wi-Fi 6.”
The new xFi Advanced Gateway will be available in the coming months to customers that subscribe to Xfinity Internet speed tiers of 300 Mbps or faster.
