Comcast 150 mbps modem could launch in 2008

Tweet Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said his company plans to roll out a new cable modem that delivers 150 megabits per second (Mbps) of bandwidth. It seems a 2008 trial and start of rollout is likely It is a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. DOCSIS information is here at wikipedia A recent study predicted that by 2011, DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS use will be at 60% and DOCSIS 3.0 CPEs (modems, set-tops, eMTAs, etc.) will only be in 40% of cable broadband subscriber homes. Cablelabs is also accelerating DOCSIS 3.0 trials and efforts

Fiber is still four times faster and Verizon has already been rolling out its service. The speed of the fiber is being increased 4-8 times. Verizon could have over 1.5 million subscribers by the end of 2007 to FIOS

Currently in Verizon's network, a single fiber from a Verizon switching office has transmission speeds of 622 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 155 Mbps upstream. When the fiber reaches a neighborhood it is split up to feed multiple fibers, serving as many as 32 customers. With G-PON electronics, that same fiber from the switching office will have a downstream transmission speed of 2.4 Gbps (gigabits per second) and an upstream speed of 1.2 Gbps.

Comcast is sending a message that it intends to compete with Verizon's FiOS service at every step to woo customers with the fastest broadband in the land.

Verizon delivers more than 100 Mbps of bandwidth to customers connected to its $23 billion fiber optic FiOS network. However, in most FiOS markets, the top speed Verizon sells is 30 Mbps. In some markets where broadband competition is especially strong--like New York and New Jersey--a 50 Mbps service tier is available at the same price as the 30 Mbps tier sold elsewhere. FiOS-connected households number about 348,000 in 16 states.

While Verizon does have the fancier (fiber-optic) network, it's still pushing for better speeds. Verizon is now in the process of converting the network to a new and faster flavor of optical networking equipment.