W.O.W. → WOW supporting Motorola SB6120 as of November 1st

»thewowbuzz.com/blog/tech ··· a-sb6120

Some months ago, I published an article on DOCSIS 3.0, and how WOW! was working to upgrade plant to offer those services in the future. That process is still ongoing, and our marketing folks will let our customers know when those services are available in due time.

An outgrowth of that discussion centered around providing support for modems available at Best Buy and other retail outlets. While WOW! cannot feasibly support every modem out there for obvious reasons, we’ve had a sufficient number of inquiries regarding this particular modem that the decision was made to build a specific configuration file to support this particular product. Several things had to happen first, including a major upgrade to our Sigma provisioning system. Those upgrades are now complete, as well as the creation of the necessary file structures to support the SB6120. Support for the SB6120 will be formally rolled out on November 1st, 2010.

So, for your information, and as promised, WOW! currently supports the following equipment on its DOCSIS network:

All Scientific Atlanta modems

All Cisco modems (except Linksys, which was acquired by Cisco within the last couple of years)

All Arris modems

and, (drum roll please….)

The Motorola SB6120! (as of November 1st, 2010)

Please note that the 6120’s advanced DOCSIS 3.0 feature set will not work until DOCSIS 3.0 is officially launched on the WOW! network. But for now that modem will operate effectively at the same speeds and performance levels as the other modems on this list.

Those of our customers that have purchased these modems may implement them on the network by simply calling our Customer Care Center and giving requested information to the agent (modem MAC address and serial number).

Until next time….

And there was much rejoicing.

Awesome, I think I will finally ditch the $5 rental modem and get this one instead. F the $5 modem fee.

Also good to know that at least they are working on DOCSIS 3.0.

I want one, I hate this rental fee.

the sb 6120's are working now (per steve) just hooked mine up and it running fast!

Any problems tech wise? No timeouts, no speed drops, no connection drops, reliable?

Also what's the process of swapping out? I assume it's:
1. Buy modem
2. Hook it up to the coax cable
3. Call customer service, read them S/N from the modem or whatever else they might ask
4. Return rental?

Anything else I might be missing?

Finally one less thing I have to get retentions to drop the fee for. Think I'll get myself a new modem as part of my christmas.

Well, I bought one, set it up, no problems so far. Just had to connect the 6120, call WOW and give them MAC address of the modem. All in all a painless process, wow technician will stop by on Wednesday to pick the rental one.

Mine is working as of Tuesday and I've had no problems at all yet.

Is the Motorola the only DOCSIS 3.0 modem that will operate on WOW?

This is nice to see. Any plans for a similar move for us VOIP customers?

Any DOCSIS 3.0 modem that is backwards compatible to DOCSIS 1.0 should work on WOW (but there is never a guarantee). The SB6120 was only backwards compatible to 1.1, which is why it took so long for it to be supported. Also remember that WOW has not yet launched DOCSIS 3.0, so you will only get their 2.0 speeds with it at best.

Are you asking if WOW will support customer owned EMTA's? If that is your question, then the answer would be no. As far as I know, no cable provider allows for the use of your own EMTA.

I had to Google for EMTA*, but yes, that was my question. Thanks for the reply.

*embedded multimedia terminal adapter (EMTA) is a cable modem and a VoIP adapter in one device.

I installed my SB6120 today and all is well, speeds seem more consistent than with the ancient SA DPX100 I had.

I also got this in email:

Dear WOW! Customer,

Over the next three weeks we will install additional fiber optic lines in your neighborhood. Although the process will be seamless, our crews will not be invisible. Technicians need to access the easement and utility poles within your neighborhood and may need to access them through your property. The majority of the route the fiber optic lines will run along the road right of way. Rest assured we will take utmost care while we are working in and around your property.

Perhaps speeds will increase in my area?

It sounds like they're doing a node split. So if you're getting less than advertised speeds due to a congested node, this should alleviate that problem.

I have the 8/1 service and almost never got the 8 download speed. After the MODEM switch, I get 8 down all the time plus it says I have 3 bonded downlink channels which is a DOCIS 3 thing that the Motorola MODEM thinks I have. WOW is not DOCIS 3 right? The MODEM thinks it is.

Anyway, after I put in the SB6120, my speed is way better. Worth the money for me.

WOW is in the process of (slowly) deploying DOCSIS 3. If you have 3 bonded channels, you're definitely in an area that has DOCSIS 3 equipment. That's not possible with DOCSIS 1.1.

Well I thought my download speed being almost always rock on at 8Meg, which is what I pay for, was because of the bonded channels where it did not used to be was because DOCIS 3.0 was sort of here already but what do I know.

The new MODEM was worth it for me. All access seems more snappier now.