US Cable Support > Suddenlink > Speed/Price List?

reply to iansltx

Re: Speed/Price List?

You won't see those upload speeds. 1. Most people believe that the majority of their users don't care as much about upload speeds as download speeds. And with the way cable systems are designed the extra upload speed just isn't there right now.

Without getting into too much of an argument, stop with the tired old rhetoric. The "most people don't need upload speeds" is akin to saying "640k out to be enough for anyone" in this day in age. Low upload = no cloud computing. Which is a bad thing.

Besides, even on DOCSIS 1.1 TWC and Comcast have 2 Mbit upload packages, and I'm able to get 2 Mbit/s 24/7 on the TWC connection I tried and the Comcast connection I buy myself.

Also, DOCSIS 2.0 allows for decent upload speeds. Currently even DOCSIS 3 systems use a single DOCSIS 2 channel for upload, and they have 5-15 Mbps depending on the area.

reply to Araiden
I regularly upload at or above the 768k i'm provisioned for. Same for the 512k at our shop. It even bursts to 700-800 at times.

reply to iansltx
I didn't say that was my opinion. I don't agree with it myself, i was simply stating a fact. That is how a lot of companies feel about the upstream speeds. Now that could change with things like cloud computing. I was mostly talking about suddenlink and the fact that almost all of their systems are docsis 1.1 running qpsk for upstream. They could probably provide more upstream, but you won't be seeing much unless they upgrade to docsis 2.0 or docsis 3.0. I know the technology is out there to advance this the question is whether or not suddenlink invest in it to provide faster speeds. By the way the reason one docsis 2.0 or one docsis 3.0 upstream channel has more bandwidth is because you can use a higher qam rate with them than you can docsis 1.1. Just for reference one 256 qam channel provides a bandwidth of 38 mbps. Can't remember the bandwidth for 64 qam, qpsk etc off the top of my head but it's significantly less.

Regardless of QAM level (actually higher QAMs require higher SNRs but offtopic) the DOCSIS 1.1 spec is 38 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up per node/channel. DOCSIS 2.0 is 38 Mbps down and 30 Mbps up. DOCSIS 3 is Nx38 Mbps down and Nx30 Mbps up. QAMs don't matter.

Suddenlink can offer higher upload speeds if they want. 1.5 Mbps on a business class tier for example. I'm on DOCSIS 1.1 with Comcast in my area; 2.7-3 Mbps uploads with PowerBoost (saturating the node bandwidth for a few seconds but just shows what's available).
But of course when your competition has 512k up, 768k up is ferocious competition.

As to "uploads don't matter", when your system (cable or DSL) is highly asymmetric and optimized for delivery of content rather than user-generated uploading, you sell unbalanced tiers. If you have a fiber optic (or in many cases wireless) network you have a more balanced system to work with, so you offer speeds closer to (or exactly) symmetric. See Verizon FiOS (15/5 Mbps that tends to test out at 25 Mbps symmetric these days) and various muni fiber deployments (to my knowledge all symmetric). A few counties over the local telephone co-op is a bit lower on uploads (competition isn't driving them higher) but they're still selling a 20 Mbps down 3 Mbps up connection. Which could, by the way, be done on DOCSIS 2.0...

reply to nnaarrnn
Just got off the phone with SUddenlink Business. In Big Spring the following tiers are available...meh...

1m/384k - $62
2m/384k - $90
3m/512k - $140
4m/768k - $180
6m/1m - $220
1.5m/1.5m - $245
12m/1.5m - $500

Of course, when you have a bit of a monopoly who are you going to use otherwise? In comparison, Comcast business cable is $90 for 16 Mbit down and 2 Mbit up.

Then again, if you can get somewhat decent bandwidth it shouldn't be terribly hard to compete on upload speed and price if you came into the area.

reply to iansltx
Wrong.

Downstream transmission takes place over one or more 6-MHz channels in the range between 50 MHz and 750-850 MHz. DOCSIS 2.0 specifies several variations of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). At the lowest level, 64-QAM yields six bits per symbol and a signaling rate of 36 Mbps per 6-MHz channel. Alternatively, 128-QAM yields seven bits per symbol and increases the signaling rate to 42 Mbps, although it is more sensitive to noise.The standards also provide for the use of 256-QAM, which increases the raw signaling rate to 48 Mbps. Upstream transmission, in early DOCSIS versions, is supported over 6-MHz channels in the range between 5 MHz and 42 MHz for United States systems, and 8-MHz channels in the range between 5 MHz and 65 MHz for European systems.The channels each support a signaling rate of 12 Mbps through use of the quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation technique. DOCSIS 1.1 specifies 16-QAM, which roughly doubles the data rate, and doubles the channel width. DOSCIS 2.0 further increases the upstream rate by again doubling the channel width, and using either time division multiple access (TDMA) in combination with 64-QAM or synchronous code division multiple access (S-CDMA) in combination with 128-QAM trellis-coded modulation (TCM).

256-QAM yields 256 possible signal combinations, with each symbol representing eight bits (2 8 = 256). The yield of this complex modulation scheme is that the transmission rate is eight times the signaling rate. Signaling rate is the rate at which data, including overhead, i.e., signaling and control information, can be sent across a circuit.That compares with the transmission rate, which is the theoretical rate at which user data can be transmitted across a circuit.

However the DOCSIS standard is 42 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up. 38/10 after overhead. 48Mbps means nothing when it's above the standard. Yes, higher QAMs mean higher symbol rates but if it's above standard spec it's not gonna run.