Motorola Home & Networks Mobility business has no plans to let the distractions of its handset arm slow the company down. This week it says that it has next generation DOCSIS modems and home gateways, the first we have heard of, capable of running at 300 Mbps on the end of cable installations.
Cisco said earlier this year that it was testing such a device but that it would not hit the market until 2010. Most cablecos are currently installing earlier DOCSIS 3.0 equipment which works at a maximum of 150 Mbps.
This week French consumer electronics firm Thomson also said it has achieved full Cable Europe Labs certification for EuroDOCSIS 3.0 and EuroPacketCable 1.5 on its new TWG870 wireless and VoIP cable gateway. This is the same specification that Motorola is talking about, allowing bonding of up to eight channels for data and offering internet access speeds of up to 300 Mbps to the home, and this is perhaps the only other certified product right now.
Motorola calls its product line the SURFboard and says it’s designed to deliver ultra-broadband IP-based voice and data services and the platform is twice the speed of existing DOCSIS devices.
The new line of gateways will support Gigabit Ethernet home networking and can bond up to eight downstream and four upstream channels into one data service. This 8 x 4 support allows cable operators to offer customers data rates up to 300 Mbps downstream and more than 100 Mbps upstream.
The new SURFboard gateways also are equipped with a four-port GiGe switch and integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi access point, a built-in firewall which has intrusion detection and Denial of Service attack prevention built in.
‘With the introduction of our new line of next-generation SURFboard modems and gateways, Motorola continues to demonstrate its global leadership and expertise in developing and deploying DOCSIS-certified solutions,’ said Alan Lefkof, corporate vice president and general manager, Motorola Broadband Home Gateways and Software Solutions Group. ‘Our new SURFboard integrated gateways demonstrate Motorola’s commitment to delivering high-value, lower-cost-of-ownership solutions, in one convenient and reliable package.’
Meanwhile Comcast said it would launch what it calls its Extreme broadband, at just 50 Mbps in California based on DOCSIS 3.0, and will upgrade connections automatically in some 83 communities there to 50 Mbps downstream and up to 10 Mbps upstream for $100 month.