Comcast’s Roberts Demos Ultrafast Broadband

Comcast Corp.’s Brian Roberts opened The Cable Show on Tuesday with a demo of ultrafast broadband at rates in the 150mbps range. But he didn’t say where and when these kind of data rates would be available for popular consumption.

Part of the demo had the cableco chairman and CEO downloading a 4GB file including a 32-volume set of the “Encyclopedia Britannica” and the “Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary” in just less than four minutes. Using a conventional cable modem, at 3mbps to 5mbps, that would’ve taken three hours and 12 minutes, said Roberts.

“It really is a whole new technical platform,” he added, noting the ability of this 150mbps-capable version of broadband based on channel bonding technology from Arris would support not just data but also advanced video and voice services.

Just when Comcast and the other cablecos will deliver these kinds of speeds remains to be seen. In a press conference following the general session, Roberts responded to an xchange question about the timeline for ultrafast broadband at Comcast by saying: “Today was a technology demo.

“I’m very excited about what we saw and how fast it has come along,” he added. “We’re not ready to say when and where we’ll use it. We need to come up with business models and demand. The best part is that it’s incremental and backwards compatible. It’s not going to require a huge economic shift.”

High-speed Internet at the rates Roberts demonstrated are supported by DOCSIS 3.0, CableLabs’ latest stab at the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, which defines interface requirements for cable modems involved in high-speed data distribution over cable television system networks. DOCSIS 3.0 specifies downstream channel bonding to create bigger “pipes” akin to how DSL uses copper bonding to achieve the same goal. With the 3.0 channel bonding, connections at 160mbps downstream and 120mbps upstream are attainable.

“DOCSIS 3.0 is the hot item for this year,” said CableLabs CTO Ralph Brown (For more from Brown, see xchange TV’s on-camera interview with him, to be posted here later this week.) “We’ve been conducting interoperability tests and are very pleased with the results.”

CableLabs will conduct qualification and certification testing later this year with anticipated product availability following shortly thereafter, according to Brown.

Comcast Corp. www.comcast.com

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines