Any geek will tell you that there's no such thing as "too fast" when it comes to broadband speeds, and that's why the recent DOCSIS 3.0 spec is exciting to cable modem users. The new version of DOCSIS (Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications) will allow for jaw-dropping physical layer speeds of 160Mbps downstream and 120 Mbps back up-more than a fourfold increase over current rates.

DOCSIS 3.0 achieves its speed boost in part through "channel bonding" (using more than one channel to transmit data) for both up- and downstream transmission. It also supports IPv6 in order to provide billions of additional IP addresses to support the growing number of portable devices that connect to the Internet (consoles, cell phones, media players, etc.). But when will it arrive in your neighborhood?

A recent report from ABI Research gives one potential answer to this question. DOCSIS 3.0 equipment is far along in development and has already undergone some interoperability testing. The first shipments of the new devices should go out in 2007, but analyst Michael Arden argues that DOCSIS 3.0 will need until 2011 in order to have 60 percent market penetration.