Comcast plans aggressive push for ultra-fast Internet

With Verizon's fiber-based FiOS product becoming more of a threat, cable provider Comcast said that by early 2010 much of its coverage area will be able to access the net at speeds of 100 Mbps.

At those speeds, a high definition movie can be downloaded within minutes (provided it's not in torrent form). The rollout for the technologies required to make 100 megabit-per-second cable internet has already begun, and will be in a fifth of Comcast households by the end of the year.

The system already has a test market in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region, where a 50 Mbps/5 Mbps package is offered for $150 per month. This is faster -- at least on downloads -- than any package that Verizon currently offers with FiOS.

Such high speeds require cable systems to adhere to the DOCSIS 3.0 specifications, maintained by CableLabs. Among the DOCSIS 3.0 requirements, new technologies must support IPv6, as well as the use of multiple data channels -- up to eight -- to serve data to the subscriber faster.

Current technologies support a theoretical downstream output of 38 Mbps, with upstream rates of 27 Mbps. With the addition of three more data channels in the new specification, these rates are boosted to 152 Mbps and 108 Mbps respectively.

But how fast is Comcast now, really? In BetaNews' test of Comcast's highest speed residential service in Indianapolis late Friday afternoon -- obviously a prime-time usage period -- using a Java test battery supplied by Broadband Reports, we experienced download speeds of close to 5 Mbps, and upload speeds of 625 Kbps. In off-peak periods, we've seen that download number jump to close to 8 Mbps.

Real-world situations always produce lower throughput numbers than theoretical peaks, which is likely why Comcast is advertising the lower data rates. Even so, this promised upgrade could put cable on an even keel with fiber for the time being, negating any speed advantage telcos with fiberoptic infrastructure may presently claim.