--- title: Comcast Turns 50,000 Homes into Wi-Fi Hotspots description: Comcast turned 50,000 home routers in Houston into public Wi-Fi hotspots on Tuesday, the first stage in the company’s plan to launch hotspots across the country. canonical: https://time.com/2861434/comcast-turns-50000-homes-into-wi-fi-hotspots/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-12T16:48:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:02:29.963Z article:section: World og:title: Comcast Turns 50,000 Homes into Wi-Fi Hotspots og:description: Comcast turned 50,000 home routers in Houston into public Wi-Fi hotspots on Tuesday, the first stage in the company’s plan to launch hotspots across the country. og:url: https://time.com/2861434/comcast-turns-50000-homes-into-wi-fi-hotspots/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8426e22ec8640fb/69869739cd684887d20952d6/comcast-launches-xfinity-wifi-hotspots.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Comcast Launches Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspots og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Comcast Turns 50,000 Homes into Wi-Fi Hotspots twitter:description: Comcast turned 50,000 home routers in Houston into public Wi-Fi hotspots on Tuesday, the first stage in the company’s plan to launch hotspots across the country. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8426e22ec8640fb/69869739cd684887d20952d6/comcast-launches-xfinity-wifi-hotspots.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Comcast Turns 50,000 Homes into Wi-Fi Hotspots  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 12, 2014 4:48 PM CUT  A Comcast worker installs Xfinity into a home. A Comcast worker installs Xfinity into a home.John Greim—© 2012 John Greim  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 12, 2014 4:48 PM CUT Comcast turned 50,000 home routers in Houston into public Wi-Fi hotspots on Tuesday, the first stage in the company’s plan to launch hotspots across the country. Customers with newer wireless routers will now host a Wi-Fi network named “xfinitywifi,” which other Comcast subscribers can join at no cost, the [_Houston Chronicle reported_](http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/technology/article/Comcast-turns-Houston-home-routers-into-150-000-5540419.php "undefined"). The cable company will reach 8 million hotspots by the end of 2014, covering more than half of the U.S.’s major cities, according to [a press release](http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/comcast-to-reach-8-million-xfinity-wifi-hotspots-in-2014 "undefined"). The move will allow Comcast to compete with companies like AT&T, which offers WiFi hotspots through Starbucks and McDonald’s. While customers had the opportunity to opt out of the initiative, more than 99% chose to enable their hotspots, a move that will improve Xfinity Wi-Fi accessibility among Comcast users and help them cut cellular data costs. In the past year, the number of out-of-home Xfinity WiFi sessions has increased by 700%. According to [Cisco](http://www.cisco.com/assets/sol/sp/vni/forecast%5Fhighlights%5Fmobile/index.html#~Country "undefined"), 88% of all U.S. data traffic from mobile devices will travel via Wi-Fi by 2018. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2861434/comcast-turns-50000-homes-into-wi-fi-hotspots/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2861434/comcast-turns-50000-homes-into-wi-fi-hotspots/"},"headline":"Comcast Turns 50,000 Homes into Wi-Fi Hotspots","datePublished":"2014-06-12T16:48:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:29.963Z","description":"Comcast turned 50,000 home routers in Houston into public Wi-Fi hotspots on Tuesday, the first stage in the company’s plan to launch hotspots across the country.","url":"https://time.com/2861434/comcast-turns-50000-homes-into-wi-fi-hotspots/","keywords":["Tech","Internet","Wireless","Cable","Comcast","AT&T","Wi-Fi","WiFi"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8426e22ec8640fb/69869739cd684887d20952d6/comcast-launches-xfinity-wifi-hotspots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8426e22ec8640fb/69869739cd684887d20952d6/comcast-launches-xfinity-wifi-hotspots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Comcast Launches Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspots","caption":"Comcast Launches Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspots","creditText":"John Greim—© 2012 John Greim","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2861434/comcast-turns-50000-homes-into-wi-fi-hotspots/","name":"Comcast Turns 50,000 Homes into Wi-Fi Hotspots"}}]}] ```