DOCSIS 3.0 hits the 160 Mbps mark

Japan Cablenet Swims Upstream [The Bauminator]

The second largest cable company in Japan, Japan Cablenet Ltd., has announced a new DOCSIS 3.0 speed tier that appears to offer speeds up to 160 Mbps downstream, based on the product's name. They're calling it "Speed Star 160,"  and it goes on sale to customers there later this month. While the downstream speed alone would be remarkable, this article implies that Cablenet may be planning to offer an upstream speed of 120 Mbps with the product. If you're interested in the technology that powers these broadband speeds, check out this companion article.

Here in the U.S., DOCSIS 3.0 modems are going on sale at retailers. Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S. has already announced plans to upgrade some markets it serves to DOCSIS 3.0 service by the end of 2009, offering speeds up to 50 Mbps downstream. Other cable operators have followed suit - Charter Communications is rolling out a 60 Mbps service and a Canadian cable company is offering a 100 Mbps tier.

Here at Insight, we're following the DOCSIS 3.0 deployment very closely and already are doing some preparatory work on our network to prepare for DOCSIS 3.0 speeds.

Stay tuned, and buckle up!

Comments

[Derek Licciardi]

What use is 100MB speed if the overall connection is capped at 5 - 100GB total bandwidth like the TWC announcements this month indicate. I'm excited about DOCSIS 3.0 but the second Insight puts bandwidth caps on their ISP plans is the second I lobby my congressman to break the monopoly in our city and allow AT&T or Verizon in with Fiber to compete. DOCSIS 3.0 is useless if there are bandwidth caps in place. Do not follow in TWC and Comcast's shadow.