JCom to Deploy DOCSIS 3.0 in Japan

A Light Reading article describes statements by J:COM, a leading cable provider in Japan, that it plans to fully deploy DOCSIS 3.0 across its network by the end of July 2008. The service provides downstream speeds of 160 Mbps and upstream speeds of 10 Mbps at $60 per month, which is $5 per month higher than its DOCSIS 2.0 service at 30 Mbps downstream. It already has about 30 thousand customers for this service.

J:COM has about 2.8 million subscribers and passes 10 million homes in Japan.

J:COM is taking a much more aggressive approach than the U.S. cable companies with DOCSIS 3.0. Comcast only offers DOCSIS 3.o in the Minneapolis area with a downstream speed of 50 Mbps at $145.99 per month.

The regulatory regimes in many Europe and many countries in Europe have been much more effective than the FCC's approach in the U.S. People in these countries get much higher speeds at lower prices than are available in the U.S.

The U.S. approach has been to pit the cable companies against the Telcos. The problem with this is that they are both entrenched monopolies whose first priority is to protect their own business rather than to compete aggressively with each other. This leads to a cautious rollout of new services. This is why I have been saying that DOCSIS 3.0 will roll out slowly in the U.S. as a high priced premium service.