Two stories today tout broadband internet of staggering fastness, with Comcast's CEO demonstrating a new cable modem capable of shuttling 150 megabits per second on standard coaxial wire, and word from Motorola and Texas Instruments announcing DOCSIS 3.0, the latest standard lurking behind such such speeds.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' announcement was said by the AP to have "dazzled" the industry audience at the National Cable & Telecommunication Associaion's conference in Vegas. In a demo, the entirety of the Britannica was downloaded in four minutes, and a 300 megabyte file in a "few seconds."
DOCSIS 3.0, the tech behind such speeds (technically, it's capable of 160Mbps down and 120 Mbps up), is described by Ars Technica as a "promised land." This couldn't be more apt: remember that while these execs fluff these fancy technologies at trade shows, they still haven't wired America to use them, as they were paid to do with taxpayers' money in the 1990s. This stuff is for profitable big-city markets only: even FiOS, with its headstart, will only reach 18 million households by 2011.
Comcast CEO shows off super quick modem [AP]
160Mbps downloads move closer for US cable customers [Ars Technica]
