If I could turn into a bug, I would do it. I would launch myself into the Animorphs cinematic universe or put in the work to be an animagus in Harry Potter if it meant that I could be a fly on the wall in the Xfinity offices when they decided what customers what is more, even if they don’t know what that is. And what’s more than 5G? 10G.
Comcast recently launched its new Xfinity 10G Network. Typically, when we talk about 4G or 5G networks, the “G” stands for “generation,” and that’s it.
So a 4G mobile network is simply the fourth generation; same with 5G. Why is Comcast skipping 6G, 7G, 8G, and 9G, and going straight for 10G? Is the Xfinity 10G Network twice as fast as 5G? Or is this just a very odd advertising decision?
Well, unfortunately for us, Xfinity doesn’t describe what 10G actually means. Their site just says(opens in a new tab) the new network “delivers a powerful connection to our customers that will continue to get smarter, faster, more reliable, and secure.” And it adds that this network is the network that their “customers use today and the network that will power their connectivity experience in the future.”
But, as PCWorld found(opens in a new tab) after some digging, the reason it’s so confusing is because 10G doesn’t actually have anything to do with 5G or 4G or any other kind of cellular network terminology. “10G is a reference to 10Gbps, or the maximum speed the Xfinity broadband network is capable of,” PCWorld notes, adding that 10G is actually slower than 5G. Incredible work, everyone.