UPDATED 06:05 EDT / JUNE 12 2014

Comcast’s WiFi sharing plan turns customer’s routers into hotspots

small__13176370684Would you be willing to let strangers access your WiFi signal? Well, if you happen to be a customer of Comcast’s Xfinity Internet service, that’s about to happen unless you specifically authorize it not to do so.

Comcast is making an effort to create thousands of new WiFi hotspots in the Western Washington and Spokane areas, activating a second WiFi signal from people’s Xfinity wireless routers, which means that other Comcast customers can connect using your modem. The move is part of a broader expansion plan aimed at creating millions of Xfinity WiFi hotspots around the country.

In case you’re worried, Comcast says that customers have no need to be concerned. In an email sent to customers, it explains that the new service uses a separate channel and so it won’t affect your own bandwidth, performance or security. In fact, Comcast says doing it this way is more secure because it means other users cannot access your personal network.

Naturally the move has attracted a few critics. Geekwire’s Todd Bishop, who first reported on Comcast’s experiment, says it could be quite unnerving for some users:

“For somebody who just suddenly realizes that someone from the public walking by their house is accessing the Internet through their router, it’s creepy. Even with all the caveats that Comcast is giving.”

Some Comcast customers have also criticized the move on Twitter:

 

A second criticism is that the service is opt-out, which means it will be automatically switched on. This means those who don’t want to share their WiFi have to go to their settings and deactivate the option. Not that Comcast could have really done things any differently, if it had to rely on customers to activate the router themselves, it would create a lot less than the 219,000 Xfinity WiFi hotspots its hoping to switch on.

To assuage these concerns, Comcast has posted an FAQ about the new feature, and has also posted a video (below) onto YouTube that goes into more detail.

photo credit: ffela via photopin cc

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU