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Visitor

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5 Messages

Saturday, June 14th, 2025 1:03 AM

New Equipment versus Old Cables

Xfinity is advising me to replace internet equipment to access increased speed. My current modem (Motorola MB7220) is rated up to 343 Mbps but can only reach up to 184 Mbps on a wired PC, give or take. I am questioning whether is is worthwhile to replace the modem since my cabling was installed in July 2003, I cannot discern the type of cable that is in use and any performance improvement could  be minimal without rewiring with up to date cable.

I am seeking advise on this subject as I do not want to invest in additional equipment unless it will be beneficial.

Thanks

 

Expert

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111.5K Messages

24 days ago

FWIW. Performance isn't always about the age of the cable. Without knowing the RG number, it may be adequate for these lower speeds. It may not be a factor. Which speed tier are you subscribed to ? The bottom line would be, are you happy ? And if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

(edited)

Official Employee

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289 Messages

22 days ago

Hello @user_0zx38i, Thanks for taking the time to post your concerns here in our Xfinity Community Forum. I can definitely understand your concerns, because who wants to spend unnecessary money if it is not really needed. Are you not receiving your plan speed based on the plan you have, or are you wanting to upgrade your plan? 

Visitor

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5 Messages

Thank you for your reply. My plan was supposedly automatically upgraded and shows 500Mbps as the currently available speed. Xfinity wants me to upgrade my equipment. As previously stated, my current modem (Motorola MB7220) is rated up to 343 Mbps but can only reach up to 184 Mbps on a wired PC.  It is no longer on the list of approved modems. The rounter has Gigabit Ethernet ports. Once again, the question is will I realize an improvement in speed with upgraded equipment considering that my house cabling was installed in 2003. If the cable is a bottleneck, then I any equipment upgrades would probably not be worth the cost. Cable markings are as follows: 2003 2000896 CM c(ETL)us OR CATV (ETL)us 18 AWG.

Thank you again.

Official Employee

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3K Messages

You're welcome, user_0zx38i! I understand your hesitation with upgrading the modem until you know if that would help or not. A technician would best answer that for you. We would be happy to work with you on any charges to send a rental modem so you can test the speed. That would tell you if it would be worth upgrading your own modem or not without needing a visit. 

 

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Visitor

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5 Messages

Thanks for the response. However,  I am not keen on the concept of renting Xfinity equipment to verify speed that Xfinity says I am getting. I now think the best approach is to ask Xfinity to verifythe speed delivered to this location since my previously approved equipment has never come close to its rated speed. In fact, I previously resorted to downgrading the tier of service I was paying for since the service speed far exceeded the modem's rated speed which was unattainable.

Would a Direct Message be the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks again.

Official Employee

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2.1K Messages

user_0zx38i To be fully transparent, direct message would be the only way to handle this. To confirm diagnostic specifics, and look over the history, we need to pull up your account and go over everything. When you own the equipment, our scope is pretty limited, on our end, and even our field teams side of things, the core of our support is to provide you with the proper coax signal speeds and a provisioned bootfile. Management of the owned equipment does fall on you, and manufacturer to isolate speed issues. We can reprovision the device, and view our inbound coax signal flow which gives us a clear picture of how the signal is running. The core of our new promotions actually include the cost of our xFi gateway/unlimited data right into the package which is very popular. When you are using our equipment, we need to support that entire signal path/performance. We would love the opportunity to dig deeper on this, your satisfaction and confidence is always our top priority. 

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We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
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Visitor

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5 Messages

Thank you for your response. 

Contributor

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414 Messages

22 days ago

My plan is 700Mbps and my speed tests on my 1990 cable (RG-6 Quad Shield) are more than 700Mbps.  So, oldness of the cable alone should not be a problem.  (I don't mean to guarantee that your unknown cable in unknown condition will be perfect - just saying 2003 alone is not a disqualifier.)

I notice that when I check compatible modems for my area, that one is not listed, so I couldn't look up what Xfinity thinks it is good for. (Which may not be the same as the manufacturer's max speed.)

Visitor

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5 Messages

Good information. Thanks

Official Employee

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2.1K Messages

user_0zx38i You bet! 👍 It is always a pleasure to help a valued member of the Xfinity family. Reach out to us DM if you want to explore some of those options. 

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

Expert

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111.5K Messages

22 days ago

@strega7  

Was quad shield around in 2003 ?

Contributor

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414 Messages

@EG 

I think so. (But it's not easy to just google an answer!)

I can find posts mentioning RG-6 quad shield on AVS forum in 1999.  And 1999 is when that forum was created so I can't search earlier.

As I recall, in the 80s, my local cable company put the local channels on "off-by-one" channel assignments.  Sometime around 1990 they put them on the same channel as broadcast.  I had a nest of cables, VCRs, splitters, and got a bunch of multipath when they did that.  I complained and they sent a tech who said: oh that's your lousy store-bought cables.  And then he proceeded to cut a bunch of "good stuff" to length for me.  I'm pretty sure the "good stuff" was RG-6 quad shield. In any case, he was correct - the ghosting went away when he replaced the cables.  

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