2023 Best of the Best Winner: Xfinity
Every year, as part of the Daily Herald Media Group's Readers' Choice program, we ask readers to vote for their favorites in more than 200 categories, including the areas of dining, entertainment, business, shopping, places and people. This year, readers responded with more than 63,000 votes, which we narrowed down to the top vote-getters in each category, and featured in our "Top Picks" special section.
Readers voted again for their favorites - 100,000 votes! - to narrow it down to the 2023 Readers' Choice Best of the Best Winners! We are proud to showcase some of these winners with more information about who they are and what they offer.
2023 Best of the Best Winner: Xfinity
Categories:
• 2023 Best Internet Service Provider
• 2023 Best Television Service Provider
Comcast creates incredible technology and entertainment that connects millions of people to the moments and experiences that matter most. The company delivers world-class broadband, wireless and video through Xfinity and Comcast Business throughout Chicagoland and across the country.
What customers say they like about the way you do business?
• Customers appreciate our state-of-the-art Xfinity internet service, which provides Gigabit+ download speeds across virtually our entire network, regardless of the ZIP code, and fast end-to-end in-home Wi-Fi. They also appreciate that our network of 22 million Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots (around 2 million in this region alone) allows them to stay connected on the go.
• The 2022 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®) was a proud moment for Xfinity Mobile. For the third straight year, our customers ranked Xfinity Mobile among the leaders in customer satisfaction, and in 2022, ranked us as leader in multiple categories: quality, value and likelihood to recommend. Click here for more information.
• Customers also appreciate the Xfinity app, which provides 24/7 real time support; gives them the ability to pay their bills, view their plan details and change or upgrade their service; and troubleshoot their connections, get outage updates and restart their modems if necessary.
What have you learned that makes your business a best of the best pick?
Our primary goal is to deliver the best possible and most reliable customer experience. It includes investing in our products and services and our network to ensure we stay ahead of growing consumer demand, from working at home to teleconferencing and streaming; the changing demands of technology; the growing need for faster speeds and more and more internet capacity; and the burgeoning number of Internet-connected devices. To these ends, we've invested $1.4 billion in our network in Illinois alone over the last three years.
What makes your business and your service unique?
Our network architecture allows us to deliver Gigabit+ internet speeds virtually anywhere we provide internet service. In addition, we provide fast end-to-end in-home Wi-Fi, and have a network of 22 million Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots in locations across the country - around 2 million in this region alone.
Why do you think you were voted a Readers' Choice Best of the Best?
Reliable Gigabit-speed internet service; a fast end-to-end in-home Wi-Fi experience; millions of Wi-Fi hot spots that allow them to connect on the go; lots of TV and entertainment options, including our new NOW TV streaming service; and an increasingly high-quality and reliable customer experience.
What's the hottest trend in your industry?
From an internet perspective, it's the growth in remote and hybrid work and the burgeoning number of Internet-connected devices. There are over 1 billion devices connected to our network. Streaming entertainment content continues to grow. We now offer NOW TV, a streaming service that offers a wide variety of TV content, movies and sports options.
Does your company donate any time or money to any philanthropic causes?
Absolutely. Begun in 2021, Project UP is Comcast's decadelong, $1 billion commitment to advance digital equity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities. Digital equity = internet access, a computer and digital skills, regardless of where you live or how much money you have. In Illinois alone, Comcast has provided more than $91 million in cash and in-kind charitable support for local community-based organizations over the last three years. Comcast has around 5,000 employees in this region. We're committed to the communities we live in and serve because we share a future.
What community involvement does your company participate in?
For more than a decade, creating and supporting digital equity within the communities we serve, including the Chicago area, has been one of Comcast's top priorities. Building upon this foundation and looking toward the next years, we're continuing to accelerate our work through Project UP.
Comcast's internet Essentials program, a key component to Project UP, provides low-cost residential broadband internet service to eligible income-constrained households with students of all ages, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and public housing residents. The program has connected 1.9 million income-constrained Illinoisans to the internet at home since it launched in 2011. We work with hundreds of partners across the region, including nonprofits, schools and government officials, to spread the word about internet Essentials and help build digital skills so that everyone can benefit from the opportunities that come from being online.
In addition, Comcast participates in the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides eligible households up to $30 per month toward their internet and/or mobile bills. ACP would cover the cost of Comcast's internet Essentials and internet Essentials Plus program, making them free to participating households.
Our employees volunteer their time and expertise to advance digital equity in the communities where they live and work through Team UP, our national employee volunteer program. Team UP aligns with Project UP's initiative to build a future of unlimited possibilities.
What do you do to make your place a good place to work for your employees?
Being a great place to work is one of our top priorities. First and foremost, we value respect, compassion, partnership, kindness and hard work. Knowing what our employees think is important is key, so we engage in two-way dialogue via surveys and huddles to get their input, and we act on what they tell us. As a result of all this work, Comcast has been named a top place to work in a range of categories from diversity, veterans, LGBTQ employees, women and parents to innovation. In fact, Comcast recently was named one of "Chicago's Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" for the 14th consecutive year and received its "Best of the Best Large Business" Elite award for the second consecutive year.
What is the one interesting fact about the company that most people may not know?
Comcast is a major part of the fabric of the communities we serve in this region.
• We have around 5,000 employees who live and work here.
• We have more than 70,000 miles of network lines and other infrastructure.
• We have invested $1.4 billion dollars in our network in Illinois over the last three years alone to stay ahead of growing demands for data capacity, burgeoning numbers of Internet-connected devices and the increasing number of people working from home, streaming, teleconferencing and more.
• Our services are part of our customers' lives 24/7, 365 days a year.
• We have digital equity programs that have helped 1.9 million income-constrained Illinoisans connect to the internet at home since 2011.
• State-of-the-art internet connectivity and telecommunications services are key to economic growth. We are an economic engine in the communities we serve.