Broadband Reports: Comcast planning 250 Mbps broadband

Comcast Exploring 250 Mbps Service [Broadband Reports]

Several cable providers throughout the nation have rolled out ultra-fast broadband speeds - up to 100 Mbps - over the past year after upgrading their systems to DOCSIS 3.0. Now, it appears that Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, is looking toward the broadband horizon. 

Broadband Reports cites a "trusted source" at the company that indicates plans are underway at Comcast to wow consumers with a 250 Mbps broadband service. According to this post, those plans start with a 100 Mbps tier that will be offered to 20 percent of Comcast markets this year. Some system upgrades would be necessary to get speeds beyond 160 Mbps, however. The first generation DOCSIS 3.0 systems topped out at 160 Mbps, while newer systems provide for double that - downstream speeds of up to 320 Mbps.

All these plans are still on the drawing board, but its clear that innovations in cable modem technology can continue to push broadband speeds higher and higher without the need for extremely expensive plant upgrades which would make the cost of super-high-speed broadband prohibitive to most.

Comments

[MRN]

So where does Insight stand with this? Since we still do not have Insight 30.0 and it will be even longer until we have DOCSIS 3.0 how long is it going to take for Insight to upgrade? Mr. Willner can you blog about that please!

[DM]

MRN,

From my perspective it looks like the strategy that Insight is taking is to max out DOCSIS 2 speeds and then worry about upgrading to DOCSIS 3 at a later date.

It also appears that the new arena in downtown Louisville that Insight will be wiring will be the first installation of DOCSIS 3 for the company and that they will probably use that experience to help them plan the rollout throughout their regional territories.

I personally don’t expect to see DOCSIS 3 until late next year.

[Brian]

Michael --

I'd like to see you blog about what Insight is planning to do and when for 50+ Megabit speeds.

Also, I would like to know why you have selectively removed previous posts (e.g., Insight Broadband 30.0 when several comments questioned the price model). If you are aiming to be open to your customers, then you need to stand-up and face the heat from your customers.

[Dave]

With all do respect your website has had 30 Mbps coming soon for months. Are you going to pull a trick out of Mr. Ergens bag. The going joke at satelliteguys is coming soon to dish means years.

[Ryan]

What makes it worse is that I was told by Insight they released 30.0 in a few areas. But after a short amount of time it was turned off due to issues. If they can't handle 30.0 I hate to see how long before they can do 50 or even higher.

[Steve Huff]

For these high end bandwidths to make any sense, Insight needs to change it's terms of services. Why in God's green earth would you want those speeds when you can't run a server at home? Basically they want to force you to the "Business" plan AKA charge you more to run a home server such as this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx