Comcast Continues PowerBoost Deployment

Why don't they just keep it at those levels? These corporations are so pathetic. Their publicists make it seem as they are really doing their customers a favor. Reduce your rate and let people have those speeds always.

My 5 meg download seems to be fine 99% of the time... I'd rather have burstable upstream bandwidth,... especially for the large files.

Will they EVER listen to their customers.. Screw the damn downloads and give us higher upload speeds!!!!

"Users in our forums have reported bursts as high as 24Mbps."

Hello!

HI!

".... It's a well-known phenomenon that the gains of statistical multiplexing are maximized when the duration of sessions are short and bursty, as opposed to long and sustained. A short session at a higher throughput is better both for subscribers and for networks than a sustained session at a lower throughput."

It would seem to me that the bolded statement is a pretty good argument for substantially increasing bandwidth rather than instituting QOS or other content discriminating tools.

But then, we all know the telcos aren't interested in making our experience better unless they can monetize it, and there is much more money to be made by discriminating content than by increasing bandwidth.

Cause they want to make money and they know there are people who are willing to pay for more speed but they still need people like me who care more about the price point than the speed. It's the same thing chip makers do when they sell a crippled budget chip (celeron, duron, various types of "value ram").

Whats pathetic is when people seem to think that companies exist solely to offer services as opposed to making money by offering services. You're life will be much less frustrating once you realize this fact and quit looking at companies like friends, and treat them as what they are, an entity trying to sell you a service for the highest price you're willing to pay for it.

"But then, we all know the telcos aren't interested in making our experience better unless they can monetize it, and there is much more money to be made by discriminating content than by increasing bandwidth."

Another cable fanboi seeming to avoid the fact that the cablecos want the same control over their pipes and the monetary rewards that come with it. Telcos and Cablecos are both guilty of traffic shaping and deprioritizing of services that are not their own. Bursting is only a band-aid and is not giving the customers what they really want--faster uploads and downloads on a consistent basis{be it Cable HSI or DSL}.

I realize the cablecos are and will be just as bad as telcos, but

a) I'm too lazy to write "telcos and cablecos" every time I post, and

b) Roberts and other cable execs aren't as stupid and arrogant as Whitacre and company and don't go around advertising that they will screw customers first chance they get

and I am definitely not a "cable fanboi" - I hate cable but that's the only choice I have, no DSL or FIOS for me.

What is pathetic is that in our supposedly free market economy offering services and making money are two diametrically opposite strategies.

But then again, maybe they aren't. Maybe there simply isn't a demand of decent broadband links. How many people are happy with mediocre service? I am

I realize that not everyone will want or even need a speed upgrade, and that's fine. However why settle for only a speed burst if you're going to attempt giving customers higher speeds? If I'm going to get bursty speeds on downloads, I may like the download speeds I see when bursted, and may want the chance to pay for that speed in a sustained rate rather than only from time to time on a burst? Why not at least offer that as an option for those that wish to have say 15 or 20MBPS sustained downloads? And, there are those of us power users who want to do more with our broadband connection than just check email or browse some sites, so why not offer things like higher upload speeds to your customers, and offer sustained upstream and downstream speeds, instead of this half ass thing you're doing now? Why are almost all cable/dsl providers afraid to show what their technologies are capable of? There are users that would love to pay for faster speeds, sustained in both directions, especially upstream, so stop being afraid of users that will help you bring in more money and offer speeds that are sustained rather than only this bursty nonsense only!

this is retarded.

all i can is, when Verizon FINALLY finishes rolling FiOS in my area, i will kiss Comcast goodbye. they have been nothing but a headache for me. with bad speed, bad wiring (they have replaced the line in front of my house twice in a year, and they are using the same gauge cable to run about 150ft, that they use to run 800-1000ft in soil with a high water table, and i still actually get a NEGATIVE signal strength on the upload... makes for a very unhappy customer, especially since every tech that comes out says "boy this is wired wrong" but no one ever fixes it.)

/end rant

the point is, Comcast is NOTORIOUS for coming out with all these shiny new services, when half the time, they can't make good on their existing ones.

I have always been wondering why can cablevision give its users 15/2 and 30/2 speeds and the other cablecompanies can't .Is there a difference in the networks?

'However why settle for only a speed burst if you're going to attempt giving customers higher speeds?'

Because they can't sustain it. Bursting doesn't force the network to have to deal with continuous high-bandwidth conumption. If the high bandwidth is maintained it'll be like the old days of cable internet.

cox should increase the speeds from 9/1 to 15/2. and 9/1 should mean 9/1 and not a fraction of those speeds. but idk if servers can handle a full 9/1 connection. the powerboost technology is only for certain content. not sure what that exactly means but well see

How will this affect VoIP? I know that some Motorola modems cache web content and can cause horrible packet loss with people who use VoIP.

That makes absolutely no sense.

It's like saying you get a negative speed reading on your cars speedometer...

Neither bandwidth registered by speed tests nor transmitted signal levels from cable modems, can be negative.

Hello whats up with them NUMBERS???

all i know is, when the last tech came out, he tested the line signal at the box on the corner of my street, and said the signal strength was measuring negative.

If you surf to »192.168.100.1 what does your modem say? Most have a page listing signal levels.

P.S. Per DOCSIS spec DOWNSTREAM signal levels can be between -15 and +15 dBmV, so just because it is negative isn't a particular problem. Beyond that it really depends on what channel the tech was measuring and if that is actually the modem downstream channel.

He could certainly be reading negative numbers if it's dBm or dBmv since that's a relative measurement unit. In fact, you confirmed that it makes perfect sense in your second post.

And...it makes it very easy to game speed test sites like the ones here and elsewhere. In reality, it makes the tabulated results utterly useless.

Intentional deception? You decide.

Read the posts again.

The OP said "upload" signal level was negative. DOCSIS modems can't transmit or output negative signal. DOCSIS spec puts modem OUTPUT between +8 and +58 dBmV.

The modems can revieve or have negative INPUT levels, which is what I said.

Maybe, just maybe you should heed your own advice, to wit:

"he tested the line signal at the box on the corner of my street, and said the signal strength was measuring negative."

He said it was negative at the tap. That could be caused by all sorts of fun things, not the least of which a bad connection or broken center conductor.

"The modems can revieve [sic] or have negative INPUT levels, which is what I said."

Which is irrelevant, since he's talking about the upload channel.

Try again.

Considering a 256 QAM Carrier using DOCSIS 1.1 is only capable of 41 Mbps including overhead your number seems bogus.

I can test upstream signal strength with my meter "at the box on the corner of my street".

My meter has a built-in modem and upstream sweep transmitter. Neither will output (or measure) negative UPSTREAM signal.

Most cable techs I know have tools with the same capabilities.

BTW, bad connectors or broken center conductors will cause the upstream signal to be increased at the modem (and tap), not decreased.

Well then, you are making assumptions based on your own limited experience.

How does a broken center conductor increase the upstream signal, hmmm? Especially since the backhaul runs on lower frequencies, and these frequencies have much more trouble "jumping" the capacitor formed by a broken conductor than those used for the download side, often 30x higher in frequency where the reactance is 30x lower?

Ever see a drop where the low VHF channels are crap while the Hyperband channels are fine? Same effect.

Did you go to school for this or did the cable company just hire you off the street?

Yeah, sure, everything's a conspiracy.
TW may be taking over, but for the moment I'm still on Comcast. My speed tests have NOT been skewed.

IT'S A SPEED TEST! Speed tests themselves are bogus!
Didn't you know this? I have had Speakeasy tests upto 46000+!

One of my monitor programs sees bursts into the 2.5-3MB/sec range... but it's read time isn't very quick.
It's Bursting! Bursts can get "high" sometimes, right?
No one is saying this is sustained...

The upstream signal increases because the modem must transmit at a higher level to reach the receiver in the cable company headend in order to make up for the increased attenuation caused by the broken conductor.Its the same effect if you're looking at the RECEIVER side. If you look at the transmitter side and its output levels, especially cable modems, things work a bit different because the transmitter can be instructed by the receiver to change output levels.

When looking at cable modem networks and referring to the upstream signal level, 99% of the time it's in reference to the transmit level output by the modem, not the recieved upstream level at the CMTS in the cable company headend.