South Korea's third largest cable provider is now offering 100Mbps connectivity to customers over pre-DOCSIS 3.0 hardware, according to the company press release. The service is using a wideband channel-bonded cable modem platform based on ARRIS' pre-3.0 "FlexPath" technology. The Arris solution here is the same one being used in the NTL UK 50Mbps trials, which we discussed earlier this week.

Earlier DOCSIS networks can only support transmissions within a single downstream 6 MHz radio frequency (RF) channel, limiting maximum throughput to around 40Mbps (shared). DOCSIS 3.0 will allow tuning into multiple 6 MHz channels through packet bonding technology, offering shared downstream data rates of 160 Mbps or higher and upstream data rates of 120 Mbps or higher (per channel).

DOCSIS 3.0 also incorporates Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), and offers a plethora of performance, security and functionality upgrades (CED ran a good primer on the benefits and timeline last October). Of course many American cable networks, usually in less competitive markets, are still under the shadow of DOCSIS 1.1.

An interim standard known as DOCSIS 2.0b was being pushed by equipment vendors as a stopgap measure before DOCSIS 3.0. The standard would have bonded together two or three 6MHz channels to potentially offer customers 40 to 70Mbps downstream, and 30Mbps upstream. Cable CTOs instead wanted to keep their eye on DOCSIS 3.0.

While DOCSIS 2.0b is dead, ARRIS, Motorola, and Cisco are all pitching pre-standard products (with the focus on wideband channel bonding) that will allow cable providers to compete with FTTH deployments until DOCSIS 3.0 takes off. Standardized DOCSIS 3.0 gear isn't expected to start shipping until the tail end of 2007. The last report we saw pegged DOCSIS 3.0 at a projected 60% penetration by 2010.