Every once in a while I find it useful to do a status check of Internet speed tiers. With that in mind, here’s a look at what major operators across the US are promoting, along with a nod to a few noteworthy international players.
Comcast: Launched DOCSIS 3.0-based “Extreme Tier” last year with 50 Mbps downstream and 10Mbps upstream, and plans to have 65% of markets upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0 by the end of 2009
Verizon: Introduced FTTH-based high-speed tier across its entire customer footprint with 50 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream
Charter: Broke the US speed tier record with announcement of new 60 Mbps downstream service
Cablevision: Currently has a speed tier with 30 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream, but has imminent plans to introduce DOCSIS 3.0-enabled services
Cox Communications: Currently has a premier speed tier with 15 Mbps downstream (20 Mbps with PowerBoost), but has upgraded many of its systems to 1GHz, giving it room for speed increases
Time Warner Cable: Offers 20 Mbps downstream in some places, but has not yet clarified timing on DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts
Shaw: Broke the North American speed tier record with announcement of new 100 Mbps downstream service
JCom in Japan: New DOCSIS 3.0-enabled speed tier boasts 160 Mbps downstream
C&M and CJ CableNet in Korea: New DOCSIS 3.0 service packages deliver 100 Mbps downstream
Clearwire WiMAX Service: Launched 4G wireless network service with downstream mobile broadband speeds of up to 6 Mbps
Filed under: Bandwidth, DOCSIS 3.0, Fiber, Internet
I think this demonstrates that the LAST MILE is getting faster, not necessarily the whole Internet as the title of this post implies. The “middle mile” backbone that feeds content into these last-mile networks is not being upgraded in concert with the MSO expansion to the home. As consumers start expanding their use of the Internet to take advantage of these wider pipes, there will be greater stress on that middle mile to supply that content. Sounds like a great opportunity for the CDN.
[...] the last year we’ve seen massive DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts fueling increased downstream speeds via downstream channel bonding. And the upstream race isn’t far off. However, beyond upstream [...]
[...] in online video streaming) certainly suggests a reason the company has been so aggressive on the DOCSIS 3.0 front. All those IP video streams require significant bursts of downstream [...]
[...] that we’re seeing major DOCSIS 3.0 deployments with downstream channel bonding, the question of upstream bonding is coming to the fore. Like its [...]
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