[RTC List] FYI.

[Gregg Foster]

Comcast CEO shows off super quick modem 
By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer
Wed May 9, 7:50 AM ET 
Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled a cable industry
audience Tuesday, showing off for the first time in public new
technology that enabled a data download speed of 150 megabits per
second, or roughly 25 times faster than today's standard cable modems.
The cost of modems that would support the technology, called "channel
bonding," is "not that dissimilar to modems today," he told The
Associated Press after a demonstration at The Cable Show. It could be
available "within less than a couple years," he said.
The new cable technology is crucial because the industry is competing
with a speedy new offering called FiOS, a TV and Internet service that
Verizon Communications Inc. is selling over a new fiber-optic network.
The top speed currently available through FiOS is 50 megabits per
second, but the network is already capable of providing 100 Mbps and the
fiber lines offer nearly unlimited potential.
The technology, called DOCSIS 3.0, was developed by the cable industry's
research arm, Cable Television Laboratories. It bonds together four
cable lines but is capable of allowing much more capacity. The
laboratory said last month it expected manufacturers to begin submitting
modems for certification under the standard by the end of the year.
In the presentation, ARRIS Group Inc. chief executive Robert Stanzione
downloaded a 30-second, 300-megabyte television commercial in a few
seconds and watched it long before a standard modem worked through an
estimated download time of 16 minutes.
Stanzione also downloaded the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007
and Merriam-Webster's visual dictionary in under four minutes, when it
would have taken a standard modem three hours and 12 minutes.
"If you look at what just happened, 55 million words, 100,000 articles,
more than 22,000 pictures, maps and more than 400 video clips," Roberts
said. "The same download on dial-up would have taken two weeks."
Other cable industry executives, including Time Warner Inc. Chief
Executive Richard Parsons, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Viacom
Inc. Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, cheered the demonstration during a
panel afterward.
Brian Dietz, spokesman for the conference host, the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association, said the demonstration was the key
technological advance showcased at the conference.
"It's an exponential step forward and we're very excited," Roberts said.
"What consumers actually do with all this speed is up to the imagination
of the entrepreneurs of tomorrow
 
 
Gregg Foster
Executive Director
Redwood Region Economic Development Commission
520 E Street
Eureka, CA  95501
707-445-9651
707-445-9652 (fax)
rredc at northcoast.com <mailto:rredc at northcoast.com> 
www.rredc.com <http://www.rredc.com> 
 
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
 - William Shakespeare
 
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