San Jose, Calif.-based Netgear announced today that its cable modem has received DOCSIS 3.0 certification from CableLabs.
Netgear’s CMD31 modem achieved certification in CableLabs’ Wave 60. Earlier this month, Taiwan-based Hitron Technologies’ cable modem garnered DOCSIS 3.0 certification in Wave 61.
“This certification is a significant milestone for Netgear and its cable customers,” said David James, director of product management for Netgear. “This follows several years of effort on the part of Netgear cable operators and our key technology suppliers to move broadband data to new performance heights. We’re thrilled to now provide the DOCSIS 3.0-certified CMD31T to our cable operator customers worldwide, as it offers strategic performance advantage in the face of telco and ISP competition.”
After none of the cable modem vendors made it through a December certification wave, Ambit, Arris, Cisco, Motorola and SMC received DOCSIS 3.0 status for their cable modems in CableLabs’ Wave 58 in May (story here). Motorola received certification for two of its modems.
DOCSIS 3.0 can achieve downstream broadband speeds of up to 160 Mbps by bonding 6 MHz – or in the case of Europe and some parts of Asia and Latin America, 8 MHz – channels together. DOCSIS upstream channel bonding, which will be deployed after downstream channel bonding, can provide up to 120 Mbps of shared throughput for cable operators.
Current requirements for DOCSIS 3.0 call for equipment to support channel bonding on at least four upstream and four downstream channels, although the platform gives operators the flexibility to bond as few as two channels to meet market needs and competition. DOCSIS 3.0’s speeds are limited only by the number of bonded channels, so as DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem technology continues to evolve, the ability to support more and more bonded channels will be the result. Channels used for bonding don’t need to be adjacent.
Large cable operators such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable are expected to rollout the faster DOCSIS 3.0 channel-bonded services in areas where they’re competing head-to-head with Verizon’s FiOS service.
Netgear also announced today that ZON TVCabo, a subsidiary of ZON Multimedia and Portugal’s largest triple-play operator, picked Netgear’s Wireless Cable Voice Gateway (CVG834G) for its Internet customer base.
With more than 1.5 million TV, 400,000 broadband and 200,000 fixed-line customers, ZON Multimedia is Portugal’s leading provider of triple-play offerings. Originally a cable TV operator, ZON now offers multiple services across several platforms – cable, satellite and ADSL – and it is now launching a Mobile Virtual Network Operator.
More Broadband Direct:
• Netgear’s modem garners DOCSIS 3.0 certification from CableLabs
• Dish says it’s 1st to offer all-MPEG-4 programming
• TWC, Big Ten Network ink carriage agreement
• Charter plans free laptop promotion
• Verizon expands FiOS services in Va., Fla.
• Microsoft puts money in Move Networks
