Comcast looks to offer gigabit internet speeds in 2015
By Chris Schroeder @schroederrock · 1 hour ago 6
Comcast has announced it's intentions to offer a gigabit Internet service in
the United States this year. The ability to offer a new-generation of
blazing fast Internet speeds through cable lines comes as a result of ISPs
beginning to adopt Broadcom’s newest BCM93390 chip, which complies with the
latest DOCSIS 3.1 standard and is required for modems to receive the
theoretical 1 Gbps download speed.
Once implemented, Comcast would theoretically be able to compete with
services like Google Fiber, which is still only available in a small handful
of markets in the United States. Though Comcast's download speeds would be
capable of reaching 1Gbps with the new tech, upload streams will still lag
behind. Broadcom says that it's chip would favor download speeds by as much
as 4-5x over upload speeds. Even with the deficit, that leaves a theoretical
upload speed of 200-250 Mbps under the new standard.
As it stands, Comcast's best download speeds are said to be about 150 Mbps,
making a jump to 1 Gbps a huge leap no matter where you are in the United
States. DOCSIS 3.1 will be backwards-compatible with the current 3.0
standard that many home modems run now. Should Comcast/Xfinity customers
pick up a 3.1-compliant modem, they'd be able to use the same modem for both
the slowest and fastest connections offered.
