Last year, Videotron became the first major MSO to deploy DOCSIS 3.0 wideband data services in North America, and today the Canadian cable operator said it was rolling the faster speeds into its Montreal footprint.
Starting today, Videotron said it’s deploying its Ultimate Speed Internet 30 and Ultimate Speed Internet 50 services to Montreal South Shore, making download speeds of 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps available to 377,000 more households via DOCSIS 3.0 technology. Videotron is also upgrading transfer limits to 70 GB for Ultimate Speed Internet 30 and 100 GB for Ultimate Speed Internet 50.
“Videotron is now making the latest technology available to residential and business customers on Montreal’s South Shore,” said Manon Brouillette, senior vice president of strategy and marketing at Videotron. “Ultimate Speed meets the growing needs of households where several users share a single Internet connection.”
As in its previous deployments (story here), Videotron is using Cisco gear, including cable modems and cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), for its Montreal DOCSIS 3.0 service.
Ultimate Speed Internet 30 and Ultimate Speed Internet 50 cost $64.95 and $79.95 per month, respectively, with a 12-month commitment. For a limited time, new residential customers who sign up for one year get the first month free.
The Ultimate Speed Internet rollout in new regions will cover the following South Shore communities: Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Saint-Hubert, Longueuil, Vieux-Longueuil, Saint-Lambert, Brossard, Greenfield Park, Delson, Sainte-Catherine, La Prairie, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Sainte-Julie, Beloeil, Chambly, Varennes, Boucherville, Saint-Constant, Chateauguay, Beauharnois, Kahnawake, Lery, Sainte-Martine, Saint-Rémi, McMasterville, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Otterburn Park, Saint-Amable, Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil, Contrecoeur, Verchères, Candiac, Carignan and Mercier.
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.
Last year, Comcast reached its goal of having DOCSIS 3.0-based data services deployed in 20 percent of its footprint. Other cable operators, such as Cox, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, are also ramping up their DOCSIS 3.0 plans this year as a way to compete against fiber optic-based telcos such as Verizon.
More Broadband Direct:
• Dzuban is SCTE’s new president, CEO
• Portland second to get Clear
• Videotron rolls DOCSIS 3.0 speeds into Montreal
• AT&T launches U-verse services in parts of 5 states
• Time Warner Cable to book $15B charge in 4Q
• Motorola powers up its first Latin American DOCSIS 3.0 deployment
• Netgear debuts gateways for converged services
• Entropic aims to make a splash at CES with demos
• Celeno, Cavium Networks team up on whole-home HDMI
• Starz selects TandbergTV’s enhanced MediaPath system
• Broadband Briefs for 01/07/09
