If you talk to anyone who has been successful at business, they will almost invariably tell you that the key to their success was recognizing where trends were going and then taking the initiative to take advantage of those trends. That certainly seems to be Comcast's attitude when it comes to providing access to the Internet.

The Internet is probably the one thing that has the biggest potential to influence the way people do business, are entertained, get further education, and even conduct their personal lives. With the recognition of that, combined with the acknowledgment of the fact that faster Internet connections invariably mean a greater ability to take advantage of all of the benefits of the Internet, Comcast has made providing fast and affordable access to the Internet one of its main priorities.

It may seem a little bit odd for a cable TV service provider to offer high speed Internet access as well. After all, if people are surfing the Internet, they can't be watching TV at the same time (or at least not paying that much attention to the TV). And then there's the fear that online video and the ability to stream TV shows might allow the Internet to take the place of TV. Despite these concerns though, it actually makes a lot of sense for Comcast to offer high speed Internet access. First of all, it's very much within the realm of Comcast's technical expertise to provide high speed Internet access. After all, digital cable TV is based on technology that moves large amounts of information over a cable, and that makes it very adaptable for high speed Internet data transmission as well.

On the business side of things, it's unlikely that Comcast is creating competition for itself by offering high speed Internet access for several reasons. For instance, there just aren't enough TV shows and movies on the Internet to satisfy people's craving for them, and even if there were, there just isn't the bandwidth to deliver them over the Internet. Even if none of that was a concern and if people really wanted to watch TV on their computers, they would probably find a way to do that anyway, so Comcast might as well hedge its bets by providing the high speed access to the Internet that would allow it.

Since Comcast decided to provide access to the Internet, it figured that it might as well provide the best access possible. It definitely does that by providing download speeds that are four times that of the nearest competing technology. Plus, broad band cable Internet access has the convenience of always being on, doesn't prevent taking or placing phone calls, and is extremely stable and reliable. There's no built in lag time that would interfere with online gaming or VoIP applications (which means having an alternative to the normal phone company, which could help save money). Best of all, this form of high speed Internet access costs much less than satellite Internet- its nearest competitor- and only a few dollars more every month than DSL, which only provides one sixth the speed at its best.

With all of these advantages, Comcast is clearly geared up for business success with its broad band Internet service.