re: Wideband Speed Race Takes OffIt strikes me that the article doesn-¦t mention the upload speeds... In a era where personal content is uploaded, peer to peer traffic is shaped, uploading becomes as important as downloading. This is the achilles of a HFC network as it is currently configured. The upload speed is technically limited to a fraction of the download speeds (750Kb to 2 Mb/s depending on the modulation techniques, the node combining as well as the signal to noise ratio).
re: Wideband Speed Race Takes OffVery interesting article but difficult to agree that such a technology can become so pervasive as portrayed. It is surprising that if the universe of DOCSIS 3 homes will rise to 40 million by end of 2009 and 70 million by 2010, a near tripling of the current number, what is left for other technologies? The Fiber based operators such as Verizon FiOS also provide 50 mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream; are they likely to take it lying down? If not what are we saying about the future of Fiber to home? Secondly the downstream speeds are misleaing. what the operators get with Docsis 3 is 40 Mbps per 6 Mhz downstream channel using 256 QAM. By deploying three channels they are getting upwards of 100 Mbps. But uplink speeds are only 5 Mbps ( in case of Comcast for example). Also the tariffs of $149 per month make it more suited for SMEs and large users.Even if the tariffs by 2010 fall to $100, we are talking of a $ 7 Billion monthly revenue from broadband services alone or $84 Billion a year.Are these services taking over the universe?
This is the achilles of a HFC network as it is currently configured. The upload speed is technically limited to a fraction of the download speeds (750Kb to 2 Mb/s depending on the modulation techniques, the node combining as well as the signal to noise ratio).