DOCSIS 3.0 will be available to all of the cable industry’s data customers by 2013, according to a new forecast by Pike & Fischer.
Last year, Canada’s Videotron became the first North American cable operator to deploy the faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds that are achieved through bonding downstream channels. Comcast has launched DOCSIS 3.0-enabled services in 12 of its major markets thus far and plans to have it in 65 percent of its footprint by the end of the year.
Some of the biggest cable operators will cover 100 percent of their territories with DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities by the end of next year, with others reaching that mark by the end of 2013, according to the Pike & Fisher analysis.
The Silver Spring, Md.-based research house also predicted that DOCSIS 3.0 will garner a lot of support from government officials distributing funds from the economic stimulus package.
“Considering the massive bandwidth increases that will be enabled by upgrading DOCSIS 2.0 to 3.0, the government is likely to view DOCSIS 3.0 as a most feasible and affordable near-term solution to perceived bandwidth scarcities,” said Pike & Fisher chief analyst Tim McElgunn, who authored the report.
