DOCSIS Revolution Coming at High Speed

Jason Hall, Cox Communications Inc.’s regional product manager for high-speed data, said new hardware would soon make local cable modem access even better.

In the next few months, the second generation of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification modems (DOCSIS 1.1) will be available through Cox’s regional office in Springdale. Cox, based in Atlanta, introduced cable modem service last summer in Bentonville and Springdale. Rogers is slowly getting the product, and Fayetteville will start getting it in late spring.

DOCSIS 1.1 has been adopted by the cable industry as the modem standard. Hall said DOCSIS boxes would enable system operators to make more efficient use of their node capacity, or the amount of signals that may be sent and received along a cable system’s branches.

In turn, the higher node capacity provides neighborhoods with a wider bandwidth, making their service faster. Regular cable modem Internet access is already as much as 30 times faster than a 28K modem connection. Hall said DOCSIS would improve that rate and add another dimension.

Unlike standard cable access boxes, which generally sit beside TV sets and are leased monthly from a cable provider, the DOCSIS may be leased or purchased. Customers will have the ability to buy a DOCSIS and, if they relocate, take the box and use it anywhere else in the nation. Hall said a variety of DOCSIS packages would be available. He said it was too early to give cost estimates.