StarHub Ramps Up to Broadband Speed of 145 Mbps with Motorola, Vyyo

Several vendors have used The Cable Show ’07 venue in Las Vegas to trumpet deployment news, including Vyyo and Motorola, which announced successful testing with StarHub of DOCSIS 3.0 services with speeds exceeding 145 Mbps.

Testing took place over StarHub’s hybrid HFC network using Motorola’s network products and Vyyo’s UltraBand Spectrum Overlay solutions.
 
Vyyo’s Spectrum Overlay solutions use spectrum up to the 2.75 GHz frequency for increased upstream and downstream bandwidth, allowing MSOs to achieve competitive bandwidth speeds when used in combination with DOCSIS 3.0 network equipment.

StarHub has coupled Vyyo’s Spectrum Overlay with pre-DOCSIS 3.0 CMTSs and cable modems, both by Motorola, en route to successfully channel bonding four downstream channels. Spectrum Overlay uses higher frequencies on existing coaxial cable to double the downstream bandwidth while increasing the upstream bandwidth by a factor of at least four.

StarHub is a quad-play provider in Singapore that offers services over fixed mobile (3G and GSM) and Internet platforms to half a million cable TV subscribers, 300,000 broadband subscribers and serves a large portion of the island’s wireless market.

StarHub upgraded its entire network to a pre-DOCSIS 3.0 platform using the Motorola gear and started offering its 100 Mbps service on Dec. 28 of last year. Customers are able to go into stores, buy Motorola 6100 modems, and get them to work themselves through plug-and-play.

StarHub is one of 12 companies and consortiums that is in contention to develop and build Singapore’s Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN). Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority wants Next Gen NBN to reach speeds of 1 Gbps or more and provide affordable broadband to 95 percent of the homes and businesses on the island by 2012. StarHub will use the Spectrum Overlay solution en route to a full DOCSIS 3.0 solution and in greenfield builds.

 "As we plan the network facility necessary to deliver DOCSIS 3.0 Ultra-Broadband services, the ability to leverage our existing infrastructure investment will be critically important," said Thomas Ee, senior vice president for StarHub’s Cable, Fixed and IP Services, in a prepared statement. "Our tests with Motorola and Vyyo are an important step down the path toward delivering the services that are envisioned as part of the Next Generation National Broadband Network."

StarHub’s trials used Vyyo’s XHUB node product, XFR trunk amplifier, XTB CPE device and passive elements to double downstream bandwidth and increase upstream bandwidth by a factor of at least four. Motorola equipment involved in the tests included the Motorola BSR 64000 CMTS and Motorola SB6100 channel-bonding cable modems. Cedar Point’s Safari C³ makes WiMAX debut in Ecuador In other show news, Cedar Point Communications announced the first use of its Safari C³ Multimedia Switching System in a converged wireline and WiMAX voice deployment.

Unable to reach a large industrial area by traditional means, Grupo TVCable, the largest cable system operator in Ecuador, deployed SIP-based services using the Safari C³ platform to an initial base of approximately 300 subscribers in an area adjacent to the city of Guayaquil. The Safari C³ switch is also being used to support the delivery of VoIP services via the existing Grupo TVCable HFC infrastructure to residential and business customers elsewhere in Guayaquil.

The Grupo TVCable deployment leverages SAFARI C³ to serve as a point of convergence between wireline and wireless environments and to simultaneously handle a wide array of services, including NCS and SIP-based voice, as well as WiMAX traffic.
 
"The high degree of flexibility engineered into SAFARI C³ has been invaluable in the Guayaquil industrial area where it is not practical to run HFC plant," said Jorge Schwartz, CEO of Grupo TVCable, in a prepared statement. "Because it can simultaneously handle PacketCable and SIP-based voiced services with no modification, we have been able to use a single SAFARI switch to simply and cost-effectively meet all of our voice needs in a highly-diverse system architecture."

In the Grupo TVCable deployment, calls handled by SAFARI C³ are carried over 3.5 GHz spectrum between WiMAX towers and the customer premises. Grupo TVCable said the deployment will reach 2,000 customers or more over the next 12-to-18 months. – Mike Robuck