Pedal to Metal

Cable’s travel in the broadband fast lane has received additional horsepower from Casa Systems, Arris and Cisco, the 1st companies to receive from CableLabs qualification status for DOCSIS 3.0. CMTS headend gear from each meets specs enabling downstream data rates of 160Mbps or higher and upstream data rates of 120 Mbps or higher. “This technological achievement… will enable companies to begin to develop products that will support the rapid deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 services in 2008,” said Comcast boss and CableLabs chmn Brian Roberts. The MSO plans to complete a DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure in 20% of its footprint by the end of next year, said CTO Tony Werner during the CableNEXT conference last month. While Cox pres Pat Esser and Time Warner Cable chief Glenn Britt joined Roberts in lauding CableLabs’ ramping certification effort, pres/CEO of the industry consortium Dick Green remains excited about the road to the future. “We [are] very encouraged by the progress made toward certification of cable modems, particularly with the performance of the hardware,” he said.