Robert Howald, Comcast’s vice president of network architecture, has revealed to Fierce Cable that the company is hoping to upgrade its entire cable network footprint with DOCSIS 3.1 technology within the next two years. Howald informed the US news site: ‘We’re testing it this year … Our intent is to scale it through our footprint through 2016 … We want to get it across the footprint very quickly … We’re shooting for two years’.
CableLabs, the company that designed the DOCSIS 3.1 standard, previously indicated that the 3.1 standard can transmit data at speeds of up to 10Gbps, although Howald notes that end-users can expect to experience more modest speeds of 1Gbps in the first instance.