Comcast will be the first provider in the world to offer residential customers multi-gigabit symmetrical cable connections powered by the latest DOCSIS 4.0 standard. Customers will have access to upload and download rates of 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 2 Gbps over existing cable connections that are available to tens of millions of homes in markets across the United States. The rollout will start in Colorado Springs, followed by areas of Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Symmetrical 10 Gbps service based on fibre-to-the-home is already available in all of Comcast’s markets, but the introduction of Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 will extend the availability of multi-gigabit symmetrical connections to existing cable networks, meaning higher rate uploads as well as downloads.
“The ubiquity of our network, which is already accessible to tens of millions of homes, provides us with an incredible opportunity to bring multi-gigabit upload and download speeds to communities across the country with the scale and efficiency that no other provider can replicate,” said Dave Watson, the president and chief executive of Comcast Cable. “Our connectivity experience, powered by the Xfinity 10G Network, will allow us to deliver speeds up to 10 Gbps over our traditional network to virtually all our customers.”
The DOCSIS or Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification was first introduced in 1997 as a solution for high-speed data to be transmitted over existing cable wires, replacing dial-up phone lines for an Internet connection.
At the time, DOCIS offered 40 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. Upload rates increased to 30 Mbps in 2002 with DOCSIS 2.0 and from 2006 DOCSIS 3.0 offered up to 1 Gbps with 100 Mbps upload. This was followed by DOCSIS 3.1 in 2016, offering up to 10 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload. DOCSIS 4.0 offers up to 10 Gbps download and 6 Gbps upload.
“This is an awesome achievement and I’m incredibly proud of the team of brilliant technologists here at Comcast who have worked relentlessly to make DOCSIS 4.0 a reality ahead of schedule,” said Elad Nafshi, the chief network officer of Comcast Cable.