Comcast Supermodem Hits 150 Megabits Per Second

Posted on May 15, 2007

Newsfactor.com reports that Comcast has developed a new supermodem using DOCSIS 3.0 technology that reach 150 megabits per second or 25 times faster than today's cable modems.

Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled a cable industry audience Tuesday, showing off for the first time in public new technology that enabled a data download speed of 150 megabits per second, or roughly 25 times faster than today's standard cable modems.
The cost of modems that would support the technology, called "channel bonding," is "not that dissimilar to modems today," he told The Associated Press after a demonstration at The Cable Show. It could be available "within less than a couple years," he said.
The new cable technology is crucial because the industry is competing with a speedy new offering called FiOS, a TV and Internet service that Verizon Relevant Products/Services Communications Inc. is selling over a new fiber-optic network. The top speed currently available through FiOS is 50 megabits per second, but the network is already capable of providing 100 Mbps and the fiber lines offer nearly unlimited potential.
The technology, called DOCSIS 3.0, was developed by the cable industry's research arm, Cable Television Laboratories. It bonds together four cable lines but is capable of allowing much more capacity. The laboratory said last month it expected manufacturers to begin submitting modems for certification under the standard by the end of the year.

The article says the technology could be available as soon as two years from now which would be a terrific boost to the current standard. In the presentation a 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 and Merriam-Webster's visual dictionary were downloaded in under four minutes. The same download would have taken around three hours and 12 minutes on a standard cable modem and about two weeks on a dialup modem.