CES Info on Comcast
01.08.08 - 07:03pm
I know I said I wouldn’t be touching CES past the Intel post but I just can’t resist to post about this. Comcast’s CEO Brian Roberts gave the first keynote speech for a Cable company in which he described the future of Comcast with lots of discussion on HDTV and “wideband” Internet. At the core though was the adoption of the DOCSIS3.0 standard which will permit data transmission over fiber/copper networks of 160mbit/s downstream and 120mbit/s upstream. Compared to DOCSIS2.0 which permits data-rates of 40mbit/s downstream and 30mbit/s upstream, 3.0 looks to possibly solve all the bandwidth capping issues for which Comcast is notorious for. Sadly though consumers will most likely end up with severely capped lines except for those lucky enough to be within a Verizon FiOS market. In these markets, Cable companies are frantically pumping their downstream links to 15-20mbit/s to keep customers from jumping ship to FiOS. This is all great news but I just hope the upstreams will get a little attention as even the 1mbit “premium” upload is downright paltry in this era of HD content. Try uploading an HD video of a friends birthday and let me know how long it takes, I’ll be here for a few years. Hopefully Comcast will listen before FiOS starts to seriously eat into their userbase, of the 25 million current Comcast customers I bet a decent portion are eying FiOS. I know I am.
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