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Cable Industry Needs to Spend Heavily on Upgrades

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the think-of-the-children dept.

BlueCup writes "A report from the cable industry's research arm suggests that Cable-television operators require another round of multibillion-dollar network upgrades to keep up with rivals in the fast-growing high-speed Internet hookup business. The conclusions underscore the challenges posed by the rapid growth of broadband video from YouTube and Google, and the looming threat of a planned $20 billion rollout of high-capacity fiber lines by U.S. phone giant Verizon Communications Inc."

2 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Not to say that cable is dead ... but ... by martinbogo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Remember when cablemodems were first rolled out? About one megabit speed, when everyone else was on 56k dialup, and we sat and watched and waited for the cable companies to roll out. ISDN was king, and DSL was something hard to get.

    Now? Cablemodem access is pretty much everywhere, and download speeds are pretty decent in general. DSL and Cable both have offerings in the 4-6mbit range, and now there is something else to look forward to...

    Fiber. Downtown San Francisco has some of that Verizon fiber available in limited areas, and the access download speeds get into the 60-100mbit range. Let me say that again, since I'm sure a lot of people are going to say "he said WHAT?"

    100 megabits. downlink. speed.

    Yes, there are still some non-sensical "can't host a server" issues. Yes, uplink speeds are artificially asymmetrical (~60mb down, about 1mbit up. Still an improvement over cablemodem service speeds.) It's part of an experimental rollout, and hard to get installed. So was DSL, once.

    HDTV, phone, internet access, 'digital radio', and more on a single line, all for around $100/month, at least for now.

    Cable companies have something to worry about. Definately.

    --
    "Don't worry about the problems you have in mathematics, I assure you mine are much greater." - Einstein c.1919
  2. Oh you mean the 45Mb/s I AREADY paid for? by lohphat · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://muniwireless.com/community/1023
    http://saveaccess.org/node/288
    http://www.newnetworks.com/scandalquotes.htm
    http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000267073488 /
    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060131/2021240_ F.shtml