USA - Cable Internet 50 Mbps

Comcast Rolls Out 50 Mbps Broadband Service Using New DOCSIS 3.0 Technology

The largest U.S. cable operator, Comcast (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), said recently it will start offering ultrahigh-speed Internet service using new DOCSIS 3.0, or wideband technology. It will introduce the service first in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, market, where it competes against Qwest. The service, which will cost $150/month for residential and $200 for business users, has the capability to deliver speeds up to 50 Mbps for downloads and 5 Mbps for uploads. To put this price in perspective, the latest published price I have for Verizon's FiOS - for 30 Mbps downloads and 15 Mbps uploads in New York - was listed as $159.95 unbundled or stand-alone, and $89.95 bundled with other services, as of February 2008.

Looking behind the curtain, however, we see this implementation isn't full-blown DOCSIS 3.0, as was presented by Comcast's CEO Brian Roberts at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year. Prestandard versions of DOCSIS 3.0-based modems are only available to the market now, because no standards-certified gear has made the cut at CableLabs (as of March 2008). Comcast told Gartner that it will use Cisco wideband modems that bond two channels as well as the Cisco uBR10012 cable broadband access platforms (cable modem termination systems [CMTSs]), which have been qualified at the Bronze level - meaning they supports certain key features, but not all, of the DOCSIS 3.0 specifications. Due to the complexity of DOCSIS 3.0 in both the upstream and downstream, CableLabs has allowed CMTS vendors to qualify their cable data headend gear using a gradual approach (Bronze, Silver, Gold) that phases in key features over time. This is so operators can go to market with higher-speed services to counter telco offerings and not be left hanging with nothing until full certification and qualification of headend and CPE gear.

Partial DOCSIS 3.0 features include bonding two or three channels in the downstream instead of four or more, supporting IPv6, and having advanced encryption/security features. Upstream channel bonding is not part of the first wave of qualification for CMTS gear, which would enable triple-digit upstream capabilities. However certification of DOCSIS 3.0 modems, when it does occur, will be for all of DOCSIS 3.0's upstream and downstream capabilities.

Comcast has made the commitment to launch advanced broadband services throughout its 42+ million homes during the next two years. It is targeting up to 20% of its footprint with DOCSIS 3.0 this year, with continued rollout during 2009 and a complete coverage of the entire footprint by 2010.

When the final standards-based versions of the DOCSIS 3.0 modems are available, which bond four or more channels together, cable operators should be able to deliver speeds of 100 Mbps to 150+ Mbps in the future. But let's be clear: Widespread availability of fully DOCSIS-compliant CPE isn't expected until at least mid-2008, and more relevantly, Comcast and its cable peers still have some work to do to engineer their networks to support DOCSIS 3.0-based services, which require at least three to four full 6MHz channels.

With the high bandwidth demands of high-definition TV (HDTV) and video on demand (VOD), operators are implementing a host of tools and techniques in order to reclaim and reallocate bandwidth to support all these services. Node size reduction and segmentation, analog channel reclamation, switched digital video, expansion to 1GHz capacity, and eventually, the introduction of advanced video compression technologies such as MPEG-4, Part 10, are all part of the toolkit for cable operators.

Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis/St. Paul, it'll be interesting to see what the uptake of 50 Mbps service at the $150 price point will be - steep by anyone's standard, for sure. For perspective on the competition, Comcast's new speed tier is faster than anything Qwest presently offers in this market, or is likely to in the near term. Existing customers aren't being left out of all the fun. In addition to the introduction of this ultrahigh-speed tier, Comcast will also boost the upload speeds on all customers' existing services at no additional charge. Comcast offers a number of service tiers, with from 6 Mbps to 16 Mbps downstream speeds. New upstream speeds will range from 1 Mbps for the 6 Mbps tier and up to 2 Mbps for the 8 Mbps to 16 Mbps tiers.

Qwest's DSL service offerings include three tiers: 1) the lowest-speed tier at 256 Kbps; 2) its standard service at 1.5 Mbps; and 3) another at up to 7 Mbps DSL service. Supporting higher speeds is just one way Comcast is trying to boost its cache' with consumers, as Verizon's FiOS fiber-optic-based service is starting to steal both consumer mind and wallet shares. DOCSIS 3.0, even in this more proscribed version, is first in the race toward uber-broadband in the U.S.