Time Warner Cable - Legacy → Re: DOCSIS 3.1 in the works

hmm DOCSIS 3.1 article at DSL here today suggests user will need new modem. Talking gig speeds, backward to 3.0 but now looks better to lease for year or two & have TW pay for new modem? W/o any flash upgrade of 3.0 that changed my equation of buying a brick.

it's not that docsis 3.1 modems will be backward compatible with 3.0, rather that cable companies will support both channel types until enough of their system is changed over to 3.1 for them to retire 3.0 but this may take several years to happen, so you are safe buying that 3.0 modem but you won't be able to simply bios flash update it once it's channel support is suspended on your cable network many years from now. even though the industry claims they will try to make the transition faster then 2.0 to 3.0, there really is no killer application that warrants so much bandwidth per end user, and if that fact takes the profit incentive out of this 3.1 transition, the actual phase out of 3.0 may take far longer than the actual logistics of doing it would suggest.

I've been with RR/TWC for over 10 years and I never upgraded my RR service so I have standard service.
I'm finally considering buying my own modem and you guys' posts made me think I will be OK with SB5101U at least for now.
I don't play online games and don't watch much videos online.
In my case, 6141 doesn't seem necessary for now.
If I buy SB5101U, it costs me about same as 1 year rental fee.

Am I misunderstanding something?