Internet service provider Comcast yesterday rolled out the next-generation DOCSIS 3.0 wideband, upgrading customer experience with speeds of up to 50 Mbps. The company said the leap from broadband to wideband will enable consumers to benefit from double the Internet speed at no additional costs.

The service will reach residential homes and businesses in parts of New England, including the Boston Metropolitan region and Southern New Hampshire, as well as areas of Philadelphia and New Jersey, within the next few weeks, Comcast revealed. The company expects to reach 10 major markets and over 10 million homes and businesses in the next months.

“Wideband is a game-changer for the industry,” Mitch Bowling, SVP and General Manager Comcast Online Services said. “With wideband running over out next-generation fiber-optic network, we can greatly enhance our customers’ online experience immediately. And these speeds are only a preview of what’s to come – wideband will provide the capability of delivering dramatically faster speed in excess of 160 Mbps in the future.”

Customers who will opt for the 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream package will need to pay a $139.95 monthly fee or $62.95-a-month for up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed.

In addition to that, business customers will be able to sign up for the $189.95/month Deluxe package, which includes 50 mbps downstream speeds, 10 Mbps upstream speeds, and a full suite of features and support, such as the Microsoft Communications Services (corporate e-mail, calendaring and document sharing), but also firewall protection, static IP addresses, multiple e-mail addresses and business class 24/7 customer support.

The speeds may have gone up, but Comcast’s 250GB monthly cap remains in place despite of that. Last month, Comcast announced that it will impose a monthly data usage threshold of 250GB per account for all residential customers, starting October 1.

Comcast explained in a statement that their decision to establish monthly limitations is based on customer feedback. According to them, the customers “asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive.”

The Internet service provider explained that the 250GB would be enough for sending 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email), downloading 62,500 songs (at 4MB/song), downloading 125 standard-definition movies (at 2GB/movie) or uploading 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo).

Comcast said that for the time being, less than 1 percent of its users actually exceed the monthly cap. Furthermore, heavy users will be notified of excessive use: “At that time, we’ll tell them exactly how much data per month they had used,” Comcast said. “We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily.” However, for those who will break the cap for the second-time in a six-month frame, Comcast will terminate the service for one year.

So for all the Comcast customers out there, enjoy your new super-fast Internet speeds, but don’t forget about the monthly limitation!