Thursday, October 12th 2023
Comcast to Deliver Multi-Gig Symmetrical Speeds to Customers Over Existing Connections in World-First DOCSIS 4.0 Deployment
Comcast announced that next week it will begin to introduce the first residential customers in the world to next-generation Internet powered by DOCSIS 4.0 technology. The latest version of DOCSIS technology is a giant leap forward in Internet connectivity that can deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds to customers over the connections that already exist in tens of millions of homes in Comcast markets across the country.
As a part of the launch, Comcast will introduce a new portfolio of symmetrical products for residential customers. Comcast will begin rolling out DOCSIS 4.0 to select neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, CO, and will launch new markets throughout the country over the next few years. Select areas of Atlanta, GA and Philadelphia, PA are expected to begin rolling out before the end of this year.
"The ubiquity of our network, which is already accessible to tens of millions of homes, provides us with an incredible opportunity to bring multi-gigabit upload and download speeds to communities across the country with the scale and efficiency that no other provider can replicate," said Dave Watson, President & CEO, Comcast Cable. "Our connectivity experience, powered by the Xfinity 10G Network, will allow us to deliver speeds up to 10 Gbps over our traditional network to virtually all our customers, plus even better reliability, lower latency, and the best in-home WiFi coverage. We're entering the next phase of this industry leadership with DOCSIS 4.0 technology to introduce X-Class Internet products that will revolutionize the way our customers get online today and many years into the future."
Introducing X-Class Internet
Symmetrical 10 Gbps service based on fiber-to-the-home technology is already available in all of Comcast's markets, and as part of its continued network evolution and the introduction of DOCSIS 4.0, multi-gig symmetrical speeds are rolling out.
New and existing residential customers connected via DOCSIS 4.0 will have access to Comcast's newly introduced next-generation X-Class Internet portfolio. X-Class speed tiers include X-300 Mbps, X-500 Mbps, X-1 Gbps and X-2 Gbps upload and download speeds and low lag for the ultimate live sports streaming experience on Peacock, smooth connections on work calls, and ultra-responsive gaming.
"The enhancements that we have been making to our network over the past few years have been foundational to creating an award-winning network architecture that is fully virtualized and capable of delivering these exciting capabilities to our customers," said Elad Nafshi, Chief Network Officer, Comcast Cable. "This is an awesome achievement and I'm incredibly proud of the team of brilliant technologists here at Comcast who have worked relentlessly to make DOCSIS 4.0 a reality ahead of schedule."
Full Duplex DOCSIS
Comcast's path to DOCSIS 4.0 leverages breakthrough network technology known as "Full Duplex" that utilizes the same network spectrum to dramatically increase upstream speeds without sacrificing downstream speeds.
Comcast 10G Innovation
The DOCSIS 4.0 launch is the latest in a long line of world firsts that Comcast has spearheaded in the effort to implement DOCSIS 4.0. In April 2021, Comcast conducted the first-ever live test of full duplex DOCSIS and later that year tested the world's first 10G connection all the way from the network to a modem. In 2022, Comcast conducted a world-first live trial and connected a business location in the Philadelphia region to its live network including a DOCSIS 4.0-enabled 10G node and multiple cable modems. In February 2023, the company marked another major milestone in the nation's largest and fastest multi-gig deployment by announcing its latest Xfinity 10G Network upgrade launched to 10 million homes and businesses.
In addition to Comcast's efforts to deploy DOCSIS 4.0 and other 10G upgrades across its footprint, the company continually invests in delivering a superior connectivity experience that is not only fast but is also reliable with less lag.
Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) was first introduced in 1997 as a solution for high-speed data to be transmitted over existing cable wires, replacing dial-up phone lines for an Internet connection. Comcast has been a leader in deploying DOCSIS updates to deliver faster speeds to all the homes and businesses in its service areas. In early 2016, Comcast was the first to introduce DOCSIS 3.1-powered Gigabit Internet service and rapidly expanded Gigabit speeds across the country to more locations than any other provider.
Xfinity customers in Colorado Springs will be able to sign up online for the new DOCSIS 4.0-powered Internet plans.
Source:
Comcast
As a part of the launch, Comcast will introduce a new portfolio of symmetrical products for residential customers. Comcast will begin rolling out DOCSIS 4.0 to select neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, CO, and will launch new markets throughout the country over the next few years. Select areas of Atlanta, GA and Philadelphia, PA are expected to begin rolling out before the end of this year.
Introducing X-Class Internet
Symmetrical 10 Gbps service based on fiber-to-the-home technology is already available in all of Comcast's markets, and as part of its continued network evolution and the introduction of DOCSIS 4.0, multi-gig symmetrical speeds are rolling out.
New and existing residential customers connected via DOCSIS 4.0 will have access to Comcast's newly introduced next-generation X-Class Internet portfolio. X-Class speed tiers include X-300 Mbps, X-500 Mbps, X-1 Gbps and X-2 Gbps upload and download speeds and low lag for the ultimate live sports streaming experience on Peacock, smooth connections on work calls, and ultra-responsive gaming.
"The enhancements that we have been making to our network over the past few years have been foundational to creating an award-winning network architecture that is fully virtualized and capable of delivering these exciting capabilities to our customers," said Elad Nafshi, Chief Network Officer, Comcast Cable. "This is an awesome achievement and I'm incredibly proud of the team of brilliant technologists here at Comcast who have worked relentlessly to make DOCSIS 4.0 a reality ahead of schedule."
Full Duplex DOCSIS
Comcast's path to DOCSIS 4.0 leverages breakthrough network technology known as "Full Duplex" that utilizes the same network spectrum to dramatically increase upstream speeds without sacrificing downstream speeds.
Comcast 10G Innovation
The DOCSIS 4.0 launch is the latest in a long line of world firsts that Comcast has spearheaded in the effort to implement DOCSIS 4.0. In April 2021, Comcast conducted the first-ever live test of full duplex DOCSIS and later that year tested the world's first 10G connection all the way from the network to a modem. In 2022, Comcast conducted a world-first live trial and connected a business location in the Philadelphia region to its live network including a DOCSIS 4.0-enabled 10G node and multiple cable modems. In February 2023, the company marked another major milestone in the nation's largest and fastest multi-gig deployment by announcing its latest Xfinity 10G Network upgrade launched to 10 million homes and businesses.
In addition to Comcast's efforts to deploy DOCSIS 4.0 and other 10G upgrades across its footprint, the company continually invests in delivering a superior connectivity experience that is not only fast but is also reliable with less lag.
- Award Winning Tech - Comcast has lead the industry in deploying technologies within its network to enhance speed, reliability and latency like distributed access architecture (DAA) and a vCMTS, which earned an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering.
- Smart Network - Comcast-developed technology like Comcast Octave and Xfinity Fiber Meter (XMF), enables optimized network performance by proactively identifying and even repairing network impairments that impact customers' services.
- Storm-Ready WiFi - In August 2023, Comcast introduced Storm-Ready WiFi, the first product of its kind offered by an Internet provider designed to maintain a connection during a power or local outage.
- Low Latency - Deployed Active Queue Management (AQM) system nationally and currently trialing the latest CableLabs low latency DOCSIS (LLD) specification.
Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) was first introduced in 1997 as a solution for high-speed data to be transmitted over existing cable wires, replacing dial-up phone lines for an Internet connection. Comcast has been a leader in deploying DOCSIS updates to deliver faster speeds to all the homes and businesses in its service areas. In early 2016, Comcast was the first to introduce DOCSIS 3.1-powered Gigabit Internet service and rapidly expanded Gigabit speeds across the country to more locations than any other provider.
Xfinity customers in Colorado Springs will be able to sign up online for the new DOCSIS 4.0-powered Internet plans.
24 Comments on Comcast to Deliver Multi-Gig Symmetrical Speeds to Customers Over Existing Connections in World-First DOCSIS 4.0 Deployment
I wonder what kind of crap they're putting in place to hold back customers from actually achieving these speeds....probably want you to bundle in a land line phone, some kind of cable TV bundle and cell phone bundle. All for the easy to pay price of $199 a month for the first half a month and then prices will jump to $499 a month.
I had to deal with them in college and am SO glad that where I live has more offerings than that (regional territories need to stop being a thing).
I have heard similar sentiments to yours towards them though from a lot of people.
Xfinity is the only game in my town, and even though the pricing tier that I pay for requires a DOCSIS 3.1 modem, they only offer 10Mbps upload speeds.. absolutely ridiculous in this age. I think the highest tiered package in my area only offers a 30Mbps upload speed. It really is pathetic.
Terrible company.
This is America- the land of possibilities. And these guys use them to the full extent. By making advantage over naive and ignorant people, who form the hull of they user-base. Which then these corps use as example of a "consumer choice". There's no way to avoid or boycott these companies, as in many cases there're no alternatives. And the saddest part, that US citizen, forced to pay for all this crap from own pocket. The optics in US has had to be already laid down nation wide, like a decade ago?
Availability, specifically for those who do not live in cities.
Price, internet in America is very expensive for what you get compared to most western countries, albeit, a lot of this is down to the vastness of America compared to most Western countries.
If Comcast instead focussed on both of these things, the average available performance across the country would increase dramatically, whilst keeping prices the same, or ideally lower. And put people in rural areas, or small town across America on a more level playing field with those in cities, most of which do not have 1G internet because of the price, whereas a significant amount of Americans cannot even get 20Mb internet because companies like Comcast simply have not built the infrastructure, and they pay the same (or more) as those in cities getting 10x the speed.
So, yes this is wonderful marketing Comcast, but the reality is that 99% of your customers won't even care, let alone buy it, whilst the majority get ignored.
Where I live (a fairly large metro area), they are known as "CommieCrapst" since the early-mid 90's...
BTW 1000/50 plans costs at least $129 p/m, 1000/400 business plans are at least $300 p/m possibly $400+.
BT/Openreach, mixture of old DSL and new FTTP, their best consumer FTTP package has only only 130mbit upload paired with gigabit down.
Virgin Media (owned by liberty global) our DOCSIS cable ISP, they are in the progress of finishing a 10:1 upgrade on their network, which basically means upload is 10% of download, I am on this ISP with gigabit down and 100mbit upload. They utilise DOCSIS 3.1, and have no plans to go to 4.0, instead they rolling out FTTP now on their footprint.
Altnet FTTP providers (small FTTP startups) these are mostly very cheap alongside full duplex so 100/100 500/500 1000/1000 etc. However some are hitting notable financial problems, some have been gobbled up already, the biggest one out of these CityFibre I think is even having issues, they are having lots of unexplained long delays in rolling out in my city. It wouldnt surprise me if Virgin Media buy them out.
Openreach are clearly protecting leased line revenues so will likely never have high consumer upload speeds, the suggestions are VM will eventually allow fast uploads though, just held back currently with DOCSIS limitations.
Faster speeds aren't necessarily faster for most people. A lot of people can get by just fine with 200/300/400mbps download speeds. Not everyone out there is needing nor trying to download so much data that they need that 1GB range.
Sure, maybe that 1GB means you download that 150GB game in maybe a 10 minute interval over several hours, but how often are you trying to download that same (or even other) 150GB games after you finished downloading it the first time?
Most people are streaming music (which takes up very little bandwidth when compared to 720p streaming) or streaming videos that are 720p or 1080p. If you have two or three people in your home streaming at the same time, all streaming some 1080p video, 200mbps is more than enough for their needs.
The 250mbps download speeds I get work just fine, even if all 4 people in my household are trying to stream 1080p movies/shows at once. What I have a problem with the shitty upload speeds that Comcast limits on their plans. 5mbps for the lower plans closer to the top plans you get improved upload speeds of 10mps and I believe it caps out at 35mbps on their top-tier plan!
My brother and his wife and my parents have access to my plex server, but because of the shitty upload speeds of Comcast I have to limit the streaming for outside connections to 3mbps (which is enough for 720p playback, but not enough for 1080p). Even if Comcast would allow 10mbps it would be an awesome improvement over the shitty 5mbps that can sometimes peak at 6mbps. I can't really afford to dump an extra $25-75 for a better plan (got kid's braces to pay for now - damn expensive) just to get a pathetic bump to 10mbps upload or up to 35mbps upload that's offered on their gigabyte extra speed plan.
Tangent over.....Anyway, as I said, faster speeds doesn't necessarily equate to more data.
I might be wrong, as I'm not a specialist. But how much these cable modems add in additional power consumption and latencies, during signal conversion? And what is the interference. When I used coaxial modem, it was both hot and comsumed a lot of power, not to mention the signal was unstable, to say the least. And this all comes at additional costs for renting the modem.Indeed. Couple of entertaining FHD videos on YT, and few gigabytes are gone. The caps are of the era, when the technology was still in it's inception.
The data consumption has risen many times since then. But ISPs still linger with these old schemes and patterns. How is this still legal in the age of digitalisation, these IT companies claim has come?
Now apply the "game steaming" to this " failed framework", and look what it ends up.
Excuse me for incoovenience. Just some thoughts.
You could have a 100 Terrabyte/s service, but if any one of your modem, router, computer NIC, or wireless card are only capable of 1Gb/s, then that's all your gonna get :)
Just like if/when you connect your iPhone 5 or galaxy S20 to your shiny new, super-duper ultra-deluxe primo octo-band mega o/c $5000 WiFi 17+++++ router... it will still take you 5-8 hours to download all those movies or songs that you so enjoy, because that's all the device's old slow-assed wifi chips can do, hehehe :)
What I try to say, is that this is no wonder, that ISPs like the DOCSIS idea, since they already have the infrastructure. But given, how much money they took from the budget, they have no excuse for not paving fiber everywhere. They still have to invest money into upgrading old infrastructure and hardware/software.
BTW, as for optics modem- it may be not allowed by providers, but still possible to buy own router with SFP module support. Even old Mikrotik hAP and hEX S have this feature.