Sunday, December 2, 2007

Comcast to Start DOCSIS 3.0 Deployment

Comcast plans to have DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem technology available to about 20 percent of its subscribers by the end of 2008. Comcast is looking to deliver video content to TV's using this data technology.

However, the initial DOCSIS 3.0 deployment will increase speeds only in the downstream direction. It appearts that DOCSIS 3.0 equpment that supports higher speeds in the uupstream direction will not be available at that time.

This is a move that ATT will have to watch closely due to the limited bandwidth available from its VDSL approach. Verizon's fiber based FiOS network should be able to compete nicely with DOCSIS 3.0 without much difficulty.

The good news for ATT is that the initial deployment is limited in both scope and function. My guess is that Comcast will create a premium, higher priced service, based on DOCSIS 3.0. If Comcast follows such a conservative strategy, ATT will have some time to adjust its strategy to be competitive with this new cable technology.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you mean the end of 2007, not the end of 2008?

Bob Larribeau said...

You are correct, Comcast plans to make DOCSIS 3.0 available to 20 percent of its subscribers by the end of 2008 not 2007 as I originally wrote.

I have made the correction. Thank you for pointing this out.