Fast Lane: Comcast Begins DOCSIS 3.0 Rollout

Beginning Thurs, Comcast subs in the Twin Cities region can order up HSD speeds of up to 50Mbps downstream/5Mbps upstream. It marks the MSO’s deployment of DOCSIS 3.0—technology it expects to have available to 20% of markets this year. 50Mbps is in line with other ultra fast offerings on the market today, including those from Cablevision and Verizon‘s FiOS. While the speed will start at 50Mbps, Comcast expects to deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps over the next 2 years and speeds of 160Mbps or higher in the future. Comcast is far from being the 1st to offer such speeds, but it does have the potential because of its size to be the 1st to offer it to a wide customer base. The price tag for its 50/5 service is $149.95/month for residential customers and $199.95/month for business customers. Additionally, Comcast is upping the speeds of its Performance and Performance Plus HSD tiers from 6Mbps/384kbps to 6Mbps/1Mbps and 8Mbps/768kbps to 8Mbps/2Mbps at no additional cost to consumers. Couple those services with its Power Boost, which provides extra speed as needed, and subs have the potential of reaching speeds of 12Mbps/2Mbps and 16Mbps/2Mbps. “This announcement marks the beginning of the evolution from broadband to wideband,” said Mitch Bowling, svp and gm of Comcast High-Speed Internet, Comcast Cable. “Wideband is the future, and it’s coming fast. We believe wideband will usher-in a new era of speed and Internet innovation for today’s digital consumers.” So why is the Twin Cities area the 1st launch market? It’s operationally ready and has good track record when it comes to past deployments, a rep said.