🛒
Comcast today announced the Storm-Ready WiFi, an aptly-named Wi-Fi broadcaster designed to keep its Xfinity Cable broadband customers connected during, well, a storm. That’s the idea.
Judging from the name, this is a timely product. The hurricane season is coming to certain parts of the US. Considering climate change and recent severe weather events, it’s hard to count on luck nowadays. All we can do is prepare, and we can’t prepare enough.
So the new Storm-Ready WiFi seems to make a lot of sense. Or does it?
Comcast Storm-Ready WiFi: A Wi-Fi 6 niche extender at heart
At the core of it, the Storm-Ready WiFi is a larger variant of Comcast’s xFi Wi-Fi extender, similar to the xFi Pods. It features tri-band Wi-Fi 6 and has two Gigabit network ports to connect wired devices.
Physically, it weighs 2 lbs and is a cylindrical box that measures 4.33 inches wide and 6.3 inches tall (110 x 160 mm). However, it’s the first among it’s siblings to be accompanied by a separate backup battery with enough juice to keep it running for up to 4 hours.
The battery is relatively small—3.87 x 1.62 x 4.34 inches (98.5 x 41.25 x 110.25 mm), weighing 0.48 lbs (475 grams).
Built-in 4G LTE receiver
Additionally, the Storm-Ready WiFi comes with a built-in 4G LTE modem.
When power or cable outages occur, it automatically switches to work as a cellular gateway—similar to a mobile hotspot—to deliver internet connectivity via the existing Wi-Fi network with speeds of up to 30Mbps download and 7Mbps upload.
Comcast says the new device has enough to “usher in a new era of reliability.” Here’s what Emily Waldorf, SVP of Consumer Internet Services, Comcast Cable, said about it:
With so much of our daily lives dependent on WiFi connectivity, we knew our customers needed a product that could help keep them connected no matter what life throws at them – even during a storm. Storm-Ready WiFi is that solution. Not only does Storm-Ready WiFi extend coverage to deliver our best-in-class WiFi to hard-to-reach corners of the home, but it also gives customers the peace of mind that their connection at home can continue even when the power is out.
While all that is true to some extent, like all things, the devil is in the details.
Storm-Ready WiFi: A picky broadcaster
The Storm-Ready WiFi won’t work by itself. Here’s the list of the requirements before you can use it:
- You must subscribe to Xfinity Cable Internet with the 800Mbps plan (Superfast) or higher.
- You must use a particular Comcast gateway—for now, either the Xfinity XB7 or XB8.
- You must not use any first-gen xFi Pod extender—upgrade to the 2nd-Gen first or replace it with the Storm-Ready WiFi.
- Your network must not have more than one active cable modem (or gateway)
All that means three things:
- You can’t use it if you use your own cable equipment to avoid the monthly rental fees.
- It generally doesn’t apply to homes where an extra extender is not needed. Adding it to a house already with sufficient Wi-Fi coverage will cause unnecessary interference.
- Considering it’s a Wi-Fi 6 wireless extender, the performance will likely be slow, which is ironic considering the required 800Mbps or faster plan.
When all of the conditions above are met, according to Comcast, the setup is simple. You add the Storm-Ready to the existing Wi-Fi network using the Xfinity mobile app like any xFi Pod extender. After that, place it about 30 feet away from the gateway to extend the Wi-Fi coverage via a seamless network.
The Storm-Ready WiFi has two modes—the default Wi-Fi Extender mode and the Outage mode when it works as the mobile hotspot. It has a color-changing status light that shows which mode it’s in, and users will also be notified via the Xfinity mobile app when it switches from one to another.
It’s worth noting that when the power is down, the Internet-ready Wi-Fi coverage will be limited to the Storm-Ready WiFi’s location and will not be available at another broadcaster around the house, including the Xfinity gateway.
Availability and pricing
Comcast says the Storm-Ready WiFi is available now for a one-time cost of $252 or $7/month for 36 months, with unlimited data included.
You can get it together with a new Internet plan or add it to an existing one, as long as you meet all the abovementioned conditions.
You can order a qualified Xfinity gateway whenever you want—it comes with a monthly rental fee.
The takeaway
At first glance, the Storm-Ready WiFi seems like a nice idea. But if you think critically about it, you’ll note it’s a bit half-baked and impractical. It’s not even original.
First, you can add cellular backup to almost any router that supports Dual-WAN—most standalone routers do. Then you can get a good UPS for your router to achieve the same, if not better, effect.
Secondly, why not just get a mobile hotspot or turn to your phone’s hotspot feature as the backup? You can also tether most phones to a router or a laptop and share the connection via Wi-Fi that way.
And finally, and most importantly: When a disaster strikes, chances are that 4 hours are not enough. Also, there’s no guarantee that the cell service is not impacted during that time. After all, cell towers need wiring and power, just like your cable service line.
The point is this: In some situations, the Storm-Ready WiFi works to an extent. But in most cases, it’s simply a glorified yet limited Wi-Fi 6 extender that might or might not give you backup Internet when you need it most.
The only sure thing about this thing is the cost. It would be nice to get a refund if it didn’t pass a real-world test during the first storm. I wouldn’t count on it.
Hi-
Quick question. My xFinity Gateway is currently plugged into a separate router that runs my WiFi network. The XFinity network is available in my house, but everything that is hardwired into an Ethernet port and/or running off of WiFi defaults to that better network I’ve installed. I’m assuming that if my Internet service goes out (I have a generator for power) and I need back-up Internet, anything that is still connected to the old network won’t work unless I switch their networks?
As mentioned, Steve, the Storm only provides Internet where you put it — literally as a single device, like a mobile hotspot — so it makes no difference in your situation. By the way, you seems to have a Double NAT setup, check out this post for more.
you can use the first gen pods with the storm ready wifi no problem, you just have to add them back to the network after you add the storm ready device.
i have the storm ready wifi, a second gen pod, and three first gen pods.
Hi Dong, I’m in San Jose, CA and don’t have storm problems yet. I do have the XB8 and 1.2Gb Service at the other end of the house and upstairs. I have an xFi Pod to try to extend the WiFi. The xFi Pod can only accept 500 Mb in (CHOPPING MY 1Gb WiFi in HALF) and puts out about 350 Mb WiFi to the down stairs area.
I don’t really care about battery backup and cellular access, my iPhone does that very well.
Does the Storm Ready WiFi box, as an extender operate at MORE THAN 500 Mb? I’d like to at least get 800 Mb out of the Extender.
Phil Shepard, San Jose, CA 10/1/2023
This one is NOT designed to improve the performance, Phil. Also generally no device will give you the speed you mentioned until you get the home wired. Wireless setup will sustain at around 500Mbps at best. For your case, I’d recommend getting your own modem, and then a retail mesh system. Good luck!
if you’re only hitting 500Mbps then check your channel selection and environment….i generally am getting 800-1200 on mine.
honestly not sure where you’re coming from trashing the product unless you’re just opposed to xfinity’s hardware on principal of paying the rental fee. which is fine if thats your opinion but doesnt mean the product is bad.
no other company at this time offers an all-in-one competitor in this vein — sure you can homebrew your own solution via your own modem, dual wan router, mobile hotspot, a UPS, retail mesh wifi system, and finally a data plan for the hotspot — but the cost is then far above and beyond xfinitys offering and you’re still counting on the cell site having connectivity in an outage so you’ve solved essentially nothing. if you want more than 4 hours out of the battery provided swapping it with a larger powerbank and usb C-to-DC adapter is pretty trivial.
having bought it and done some actual testing im pretty happy with it. the only thing i wish it had was 5G speeds instead of 4G LTE but in an outage LTE is far better than nothing.
What you said is not possible, Chris. Period. Make sure you READ and the please don’t spread nonsense or ignorance. By the way, you lost me with “honestly”. 🙂
After researching this, Comcast/Xfinity bills this to be Unlimited cellular backup in the event of an outage. Yes, you can bring in your own backup connection. Yes, you can use a mobile hotspot.
What I am not seeing being considered though is that this being a cellular backup, with unlimited usage, for only $252 or $7.00/month for 36 months.
What is being missed?
The traditional cellular backup is avaible to the entire network– the entire mesh system — whereas this one is only at the location of the device. It’s much more limited, Jason.
This is providing Internet connectivity to the XB7/XB8 gateway. I am confused, how is that not providing connectivity to the entire network?
this is only true if you lose power. in the event of lost cable connection but power is still up your entire network will work as usual and simply failover to the cellular connection until cable is restored. obviously uplink will be slower on cellular vs cable but internal network speed is the same regardless.
Hi Dong,
Thank you for this review … A niche idea late to people’s planning? we have occasional outages in SW France due to storms etc, have managed using large UPS & Netgear LAX20/Orbi LBR20 (we have both); luckily we have a clutch of 4G/LTE/5G masts 7 km away that our exterior antennas can see (we are on the edge of an escarpment). Even our phones can get a reasonable signal (6 down, 2 Up). Still, we have just ordered StarLink (fibre rollout seems to have stalled) so it will be interesting to see how StarLink’s router & our 2 ASUS XT8s work using our 3 UPS.
Starlink will work, Vernon, since it’s satellite. That’s a sure way to get real backup Internet.
Dong, hopefully 🤞 I wait, with bated breath, to see if the Sat signals can punch through storms without getting lost in the spectrum noise. Mind, even if StarLink doesn’t, I’ll be happy with the bump in speed for the 99% of our lives unaffected by atmospheric games. Kindest regards, Vern
🤞