Comcast Promising Ultra-Fast Internet

Espectr0 writes "Comcast's CEO Brian Roberts gave The Associated Press a preview of his speech for the Consumer Electronics show, and said that Comcast expects to demonstrate a technology that delivers up to 160 megabits of data per second over cable. At that speed you could download a high-definition copy of 'Batman Begins' in four minutes. The technology, DOCSIS 3.0, will start rolling out this year." Here's a note about Cisco's announcement of their DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem.

Slick!

[Pahroza]

Speeds as listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS#Speed_Table [wikipedia.org] are rather impressive. Max usable down and up speeds are 152/108 Mbit/s, respectively.

Hopefully they'll roll this out with an affordable pricing plan; they already announced that they'll be raising prices in February.

Re:Upload bandwidth?

[mi]

RTFA. The description [xchangemag.com] of Cisco's DOCSIS 3.0 "modem", linked to from the summary, says:

Cisco Systems Inc. is demonstrating a DOCSIS 3.0 modem that would let operators support downlink speeds of 160mbps and uplinks of 120mbps [emphasis mine -mi].

Whether Cable companies will allow you to use all this is another story — probably not, because that's the simplest way for them to combat file-sharing without affecting downloads from "legitimate" servers... And I'm pretty sure, they'll continue blocking port 80, etc.

But you'll continue buying it, because the awesome download speed will trump all other concerns...

Re:that's some interesting math right there...

[riff420]

4.5 GB isn't necessarily limited to DVD quality. Encoded with x264, 1080p = ~50min @ ~5GB. 720p = ~120min @ MAYBE 6-8GB. Both could contain 5.1 AC3, and would be virtually indistinguishable from the source content, which is generally HDDVD/Bluray.

Re:ultra-fast!? is this a joke?

[homer_ca]

Ah, that's nothing. This [tech.co.uk] 75 year old retired lady in Sweden has a 40Gbps connection. However it is experimental, and her son is Peter Löthberg, apparently one of the pioneers of the Internet in Sweden. Still, lots of people in Sweden and S Korea can get 100Mbps broadband.

Re:Upload bandwidth?

[timeOday]

Is your Comcast port 80 blocked? I've been running a webserver on mine ever since I first signed up (2000 or 2001, it was @Home then), and it still works.

Re:that's some interesting math right there...

[cnettel]

Well, while not as good as proper HD disc, VC-1 or MPEG-4 or anything at 4.5 GB will give far greater quality than DVD MPEG-2.

Re:bittorrent

[_xeno_]

Oh, I don't know, people using BitTorrent to download legal things, like Linux distros, OpenOffice.org, World of Warcraft patches, or anything else that offers BitTorrent downloads.

Seriously, why is that insightful? There are plenty of legal uses of BitTorrent that don't involve pirating movies.

(And, of course, things like, uh, porn and fansubs may not be available on demand. Not that I'd know anything about that. Oh, and indie films and less popular films and all sorts of digital things that aren't likely to be available on demand.)

Re:Sorry.....

[Anonymous Coward]

The storage media is becoming the bottleneck. It's already the slowest thing on my home 1gbps LAN.

You're also assuming single server for net speed, and completely ignoring doing several things at once.

I bet this service can be maxed out with a decently seeded torrent alone. It's easy to hit the limit on my 20/20mbps right now, you only need a handful of people with my level of service to hit the 160mbps, and that's just the US. Europe has 100/100mbps, Korea and Japan are starting on 1gbps. FiOS probably has a lot more headroom in store should cable companies start to give competition. With bandwidth comes application.

I can perform decent video conferencing with family in Europe now. In a few years the whole family could probably do the same with friends and family simultaneously.

Re:Upload bandwidth?

[stubear]

"And I'm pretty sure, they'll continue blocking port 80, etc."

I've been running my web server (IIS7 with DNS2GO) on ports 80, using 5150 as a automatic fall back should 80 be blocked. So far all my traffic has been going through 80 for quite some time now.

Re:Upload bandwidth?

[redKrane]

I know that Comcast does not, universally, block port 80. Just a side note.

Re:Upload bandwidth?

[pitdingo]

But you'll continue buying it, because the awesome download speed will trump all other concerns...

Wrong. I will keep buying it, because like the vast majority of Comcast subscribers, I have no other choice.

Re:But it's still Comcast

[Avatar8]

1. Yes, but that's what they'll offer to new customers to compete with Verizon regardless of what current customers are paying.
2. Not really. When you hit a connection to a domain you're most likely hitting a network load balancing switch and taking a slice of one of multiple servers. I simply prefer having the dedicated connection TO the internet like DSL and FiOS as opposed to being on a "hub" (not even a switch) with my neighbors.
3. Had it for over 3 years and had a problem at least every month, sometimes off for 3-5 days at a time. My neighbors experienced the same downtimes, so we know it was upstream.
4. I mean the base price, not a special startup offer. When I had their TV service and later their internet service, they increased their fees by 6-10% every six months. I've been with Verizon for two years now and I've only seen one 4% increase.
5. Oh heck yes they do. If you call in a problem, go through the time and hassle of working through everything with the multiple levels of support, reboot your computer about eight times while doing so and they finally agree to send out a technician, if he can prove that it's not their network or equipment, you get the $75/hr bill. It's amazing how well-behaved the Comcast network is when there's a technician in your house, and apparently the modem having a faulty power connection is my problem.
6. No, not at all. I have never dealt with the ineptitude that Comcast puts on the phone with ANY other company, not even my credit card banks, Microsoft or a pizza delivery shop.
7. Sure it is. As soon as the movie stuido makes the movie available for on demand, many "gotta have it now" customers pay the price for VOD. Once it's out of pay per view, then the provider attracts customers and builds customer loyalty by having a large library available. I really enjoy and get a great deal of use from my Starz on demand through Verizon.
8. Given.

No. I sure as heck would never work for them and I pity any poor soul that does. If any former Comcast employees posted here, I think we'd hear more horrible stories of the truth behind the lines as opposed to the customer experience. I'm one of the growing millions of former Comcast customers.

You, on the other hand, sound like someone who has no TV/internet option other than Comcast, so you make the best of what you have. Good luck to you.

Bad summery by CNN

[gravis777]

After reading the article, the content of the article pretty much backs what I was thinking - that while Comcast may be using some of the bandwidth for internet, most of this looks as if it will be employed for High-Def content on demand. This is 160 meg a second on their network, not on the internet. At least, that is what I am making out of the story.

Re:that's some interesting math right there...

[codeboost]

A 720p BluRay x264-compressed rip is around 4.5GB and a 1080p rip is around 8GB. The quality is very good, probably very close to the original and not worth downloading the 30-40 gigs.

Re:bittorrent

[just_another_sean]

I am pretty sure the GP was making reference to the recent situation where cable companies, specifically Comcast [slashdot.org], were throttling BT traffic.

Maybe they should work on reliability first

[NateTech]

With an outage a week since the installation of supposedly "Commercial grade" Comcast data service in Denver, and their technical staff not even opening tickets for it...

When someone tells me that Comcast is offering speed, I yawn and ask them to tell me when it will be back up, since it's down at least once a day.

Warning: Anyone thinking about purchasing Comcast in the south Denver suburbs for any serious data purpose... don't. No matter how fast they say it'll be.

When it's up, 12 Mb/s down, 2 Mb/s up is nice. But reliability is more important than those speeds. The downtime will drive you crazy if you're used to anything transported by a previous Bell entity. As bad as the Bell's may be, their crap generally stays up or they fix it.

Comcast shows no interest in fixing chronic problems at all. They're all about the 80/20 rule. If you happen to fall into the 20% that are up and down all the time, they could care less.