According to an article at Quote.com Comcast is quietly testing cable modem systems that are twice the current speed (that is, 3.0Mb rather than 1.5Mb/sec). I’ll believe it when I see it, but according to the article:

“[Comcast] plans to double the downloading capability of its high-speed Internet service by the end of this year to distinguish its product from competitors.

Of course, I’d rather that they halved the price: I’m paying almost $60/month for my cable modem connection, but double the speed would be nice.

In an ironic footnote on a week when the folks at the RIAA have launched lawsuits against individuals, the industry analyst quoted in the Quote.com story says:

“Comcast’s anticipated speed bump from 1.5 to 3 megabits will cut the download time for a typical 5 megabyte music file to 17 seconds, from 30 seconds, said Joe Laszlo, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. “

And they wonder why us industry insiders laugh at the industry analysts!

Sheesh!