Cisco Demos Long-Awaited DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

Cisco’s DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem

Aiming to open the broadband services door open wide for capacity-constrained cablecos, Cisco Systems Inc. at the Consumer Electronics Show last month demonstrated a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, to be available sometime this spring, that will let operators support downlink speeds of 160mbps and uplinks of 120mbps.

It outfits cablecos with a powerful weapon to battle rival telcos, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and SureWest Communications, which are deploying — and aggressively marketing — 20mbps symmetric Internet access pipes as part of their triple-play bundles.

The Cisco DPC3000 Channel Bonded Modem very well could be the first such device available from a major networking player. However, CableLabs has been hard at work evaluating other units, leading experts to expect several follow-on announcements for anxious cablecos.

Prominent industry watchers, such as Jeff Heynen of Infonetics Research, have said that high-speed Internet services have helped telcos like Verizon eat into the customer bases of the cablecos.

While the sorely needed bandwidth boost is welcomed by cable giants, it would not completely address the demand for symmetric high-speed links coveted by delay-intolerant online gamers and those engaging in media sharing (pictures, music, etc.) in their homes.

CableLabs has been working hard to evolve the DOCSIS spec and drive equipment vendor creation of modems that embody the advanced, channel-bonding technology. Comcast Corp., in particular, has taken steps, detailed at last year’s Cable Show, to accelerate the availability of DOCSIS 3.0 gear. The cable kingpin’s CTO committed last month to deploying the advanced modems in 20 percent of homes passed by the end of 2008.

Beyond the need for faster Internet speeds, DOCSIS 3.0 is designed to leverage cablecos’ network investments in an era where the likes of AT&T Inc. and Verizon alone have spent billions to deploy the fiber infrastructure they’re using to push video-driven triple-play services to the home.

The new cable modem and other products debuted at CES were created by Cisco’s Scientific Atlanta company, one Cisco paid over $6 billion for as part of its ongoing expansion in the broadband services equipment market.

"Web surfers want faster access to everything, especially video content," says John Sweeney, director of product strategy and management for Scientific Atlanta, in prepared comments. "To help cable operators deliver more content over their existing networks, our DOCSIS 3.0-compliant channel-bonding technology uses multiple channels to deliver more packets simultaneously, providing high-speed data rates up to four times as fast as existing DOCSIS 2.0 modems."

Cisco claims the DPC3000 DOCSIS 3.0 Channel Bonded Cable Modem is designed to meet the CableLabs’ DOCSIS 3.0 specs, which feature support of four bonded downstream channels and four bonded upstream channels. The vendor says the new cable modem is designed to be backward-compatible for use as a single-channel cable modem with DOCSIS and Euro-DOCSIS 1.1/1.0 and 2.0 networks.

Hoping to redefine how users interact with its video services while adding integrated TiVo functionality to the mix, Comcast and the DVR giant have begun providing a robust, multifunctional software upgrade, which includes a new user interface, program guide and search capabilities, to customers in the greater Boston area for $2.99 per month.

TiVo is in trials with a similar app with Cox Communications Inc.

The jointly developed software application can be downloaded overnight to certain, widely used Motorola Inc. set-top boxes with Scientific Atlanta devices on deck. The offering also requires a new remote developed by TiVo.

The package is open and Java-based and makes use of CableLabs’ spec for open cable application platform (OCAP) APIs, which enables applications to be added as software modules.

The offering includes TiVo’s popular user interface, a new search capability that enables users to search across linear TV show listings and video-on-demand libraries to locate shows. The new guide also integrates TV listings with VoD listings, which are separate in Comcast’s current offering in the Boston area.