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Comment by ogre_codes | Hacker News Reader

I thought this was common knowledge in the industry. Much like renting telephones was a rip off back in the day. I suspect most people who rent routers do it because they don't know how to set up and manage their own and not because they are making some economic choice.

Cable Sales Guy: "Do you want to rent a router?"

Customer: "WTF is a router?"

CSG: "You need one to get internet on your computer"

Customer: "I guess I'm renting a router then"

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Comcast/Xfinity broadcasts their own Wi-Fi from the routers they rent to you. That is the backbone of their mobile phone service, with Sprint towers as the fallback for out of service areas. You are essentially paying (electricity/modem) for the privilege of hosting their mobile network.

As a Comcast/Xfinity customer, I don't actually have a problem with that. I need the modem/router anyway and doubt that the extra load would introduce any congestion for me. I would want them to make sure that their usage does not count as part of the rate limiting they apply to me; but since they control the router/modem, and upstream network, I assume this is something they do.

The marginal cost to me is a minimal amount in electricity. However, their policy of doing this allows them to provide me "free" (included in the cost of my internet) WiFi basically everywhere I go. The cost savings of not needing to use my more expensive cellular data easily outweighs what I am spending on the margins to support this scheme.

The only reason I don't do this is because I use my own router (and modem); so now I just freeload off of everyone who does.

The rate limiting is done via file loaded into the router. AFAIK, it can't be adjusted dynamically as phone users come in and out of your hotspot. Maybe they give you a higher rate if you have the xfinitywifi hotspot enabled, I couldn't find any info.

I will say that the public hotspot usage doesn't count toward your data cap, at least.

The xfinity hotspot is a completely separate network from yours. It has its own IP range, and it's own cable-speed configuration.

It's as if your neighbor also had WiFi running.

I spent 15 minutes looking (which was 15 more minutes than I should have spent on something that did not affect me at all) and I was unable to find out that it had its own cable-speed config. Good to know that it's not quite as parasitic as I thought.

you can easily turn that feature off

there may be reasons to do so but is the cost one of them? It is probably infinitesimally low.

It's a nice feature. I enjoy that I, as a customer, can use Wifi most anywhere. I also have the option of turning off the functionality on the device in my house using the web portal.

It's a nice feature for other people to have. For me at home personally there is zero benefit, it's a zero net side-effect at best. Definitely not something I could/ should pay for.

Basically, it's a feature Comcast offers which is paid for by the ignorance of a percentage of their customers.

CSG: "do you have mobile devices that need WiFi access?"

Customer: "sure, how else would i enjoy my new shiny internet access?"

CSG: "so the more expensive router with WiFi enabled option it is"

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