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Comcast: Symmetrical Cable Broadband Coming in Next 24 Months

Comcast says the company should begin deploying symmetrical (equal upstream, downstream throughput) broadband speeds in the next year or two. One of the key disadvantages of cable has long been its top-heavy nature, or the fact users' upstream speeds are notably slower than their downstream speeds. Initially offering 5 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up, and with plans to nudge that to 10 Gbps down, 1 Gbps up -- the DOCSIS 3.1 standard goes a long way in pushing cable broadband into fiber to the home territory.

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After that though, CableLabs will be pushing operators toward "full duplex" technology that should upgrade the existing DOCSIS 3.1 standard to support symmetrical speeds.

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank 2017 Media & Telecom Conference this week, Comcast Cable boss Neil Smit reiterated that the focus right now is delivering gigabit-capable cable broadband connections using the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade. Comcast currently is offering gigabit speeds using this technology in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville. After that, Smit said DOCSIS duplex will be the company's primary focus.

"We’ll get gigabit speed out of DOCSIS 3.1 rollout and then over the next 24 months, we’re going to do DOCSIS symmetrical -- DOCSIS duplex," Smit said. "(Customers) will get symmetrical speeds, multi gigabit speeds out into the network, leveraging our core network or HFC plant and we continue to roll fiber deeper into the network both with business services as well as with resi and so we feel very confident that our network is extendable and flexible and we can continue to deliver higher speed."

It's obviously too early to determine what consumers will have to pay for the honor of symmetrical bandwidth -- or whether this will necessitate Comcast making changes to its steadily expanding broadband usage caps.

Cable’s upstream has long been relegated to a limited slice of bandwidth (5 MHz to 42 MHz) referred to as a "low split." To dramatically increase upstream cable speeds, cable operators have been exploring a "mid-split" that would bump the ceiling to 85 MHz, or a "high-split" that would push it to 200 MHz. Full duplex technology would eliminate the need for these splits entirely.

Most recommended from 62 comments


davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

26 recommendations

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Symmetrical data transfer rates.

IF this actually functions reliably and consistently in the real world, then I have to give accolades to all the scientists, engineers, and technicians who will have made it work in the real world. The mathematics that underlying it is mind numbingly complex. The timing requirements are extremely demanding. All the FTTH and Google Gigabit type projects will have pushed the cable internet community to truly invest in serious research and development. 12 years ago most in the industry scoffed at the idea this was possible. I still dislike cable companies for many reasons, but this is a big positive.

ogar
join:2001-12-05
Ephrata, PA

9 recommendations

ogar

Member

1/10

MY cable provider just increased our upload to 10% of the download. Its amazing that I was excited to get that yet a town over will be getting 100% upload. And all of it 10X my top speed for the same or less cost every month.
Those on Comcast have no idea how bad it can be outside of a Comcast area.
FlatWorld
join:2016-07-11
US

5 recommendations

FlatWorld

Member

Charter

In the meantime feels that legacy customers are content with a 5.7Mbps upload speed paired with 300Mbps down......
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

3 recommendations

BiggA

Premium Member

Skeptical

I'm skeptical this will see widespread use outside of a test system near Denver. Many areas are laid out such that doing N+0 would be absurdly expensive, you'd need to keep it at least at N+2-N+4. Further, there are gazillions of drop amps installed in houses that are 5-42 split, and every single one of those has to go before full duplex, in addition to new modems and the like. If they split nodes and push fiber out, they can do 35mbps upload on a 5-42 plan, so I don't think we'll see this in widespread use anytime soon.
jmmilner2
join:2011-05-17
Yorkville, IL
ARRIS SB6183

3 recommendations

jmmilner2

Member

Not holding my breath

Nice promise that will be dangled in front of those who might be considering somebody else's fiber offer but largely smoke and mirrors for the vast majority of Comcast customers who live in areas where no competition exists. Comcast isn't going to invest in new infrastructure until the current infrastructure becomes unprofitable to maintain due to age. They are a monopoly maximizing profits, not some hi-tech company pushing the bounds of what is possible.

davidc502
join:2002-03-06
Mount Juliet, TN

2 recommendations

davidc502

Member

there's only 1 reason for this

Comcast is going to charge a "premium" over their already "premium" prices if you want symmetrical or anywhere close to it.

Don't you think for a second that they are going to increase upload speeds for free. This is all a part of a master plan on how to extract more money from your wallets and or purses.