Comcast Corp. is opening a new front in Utah's ongoing broadband arms race.

And this time, it is the Wasatch Front's small-business owners who may benefit from what promises to be increasing competition for their Internet dollars.

Comcast, best known for its cable television service, is rolling out a 100-megabit-per-second, high-speed Internet connection designed for enterprises that have large amounts of data that need to be accessed or transmitted quickly.

"There is no question that speed is becoming increasingly important and our new product will help [small businesses] operate much more efficiently," said Bill Stemper, president of Comcast business services.

The new service marks the latest salvo in an increasingly competitive broadband market, with the state's largest telecommunication service providers — Qwest and Comcast — frequently battling for the lead in the race to offer ever-faster connections.

"I'm sure our competitors will respond by upping their speed," Stemper said.

Qwest Communications offers a 40 Mbps service for small businesses, as well as a product called Core Connect, which includes long distance, local calling and high-speed Internet up to 12 Mbps for $85 a month with a three-year commitment.

In addition, a number of service providers using the Utopia fiber-optic system offer 100 Mbps service, but that municipally supported network is available only in limited areas along the Wasatch Front.

Comcast's 100 Mbps service, which costs $369 a month, is available in 99 percent of the cable company's Utah service territory, which stretches from Logan to Nephi and from Heber to the Tooele-Grantsville area, said spokesman Ray Child. "The only places where it isn't available are the Nephi and Morgan areas."

Nationally, the competition for the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of Internet subscribers is as intense as it is in Utah, although over the past couple of years cable companies such as Comcast appear to have gained an edge with the introduction of their Docsis 3.0 modem technology.

The technology, along with network upgrades, allowed Comcast in December 2009 to begin offering a 50 Mbps service to its Utah residential customers. And that high-speed feature was followed by the introduction last fall of the company's Extreme 105 product, which offered 100 Mbps downloads and 10 Mbps uploads.

A new report from the Leichtman Research Group indicated that last year the nation's cable companies added broadband customers at a faster rate than their telephone company counterparts.

The top cable companies led by Comcast added 2.3 million broadband subscribers in 2010, while the phone companies added 1.1 million.