Cox, Eyeing FiOS, To Test Wideband In N. Virginia

Operator Looks To DOCSIS 3.0 To Deliver 150 Mbps Downloads Down The Road

-- Multichannel News, 6/27/2008 11:06:00 AM

Cox Communications’ Northern Virginia division announced it will test DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems -- which the MSO said could eventually deliver as much as 150-megabit-per-second downloads -- as Verizon brings FiOS Internet 50-Mbps service into the market.

For now, Cox is doubling the download speeds of its most popular residential broadband service, from 5 Mbps to 10 Mbps, and boosting its highest tier of Internet service 33%, from 15 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, to 20/3 Mbps.

“Our almost $1 billion investment in fiber and the latest technology allows our network to deliver even faster speeds to Cox high-speed Internet customers, today, without the need for network upgrades,” Cox Northern Virginia vice president of network development Darryl Ladd said, in a statement.

Earlier this week at the SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo, Cox chief technology officer Chris Bowick said the operator would start deploying wideband service in the third quarter in “strategic markets, markets that will require those speeds.”

“There’s no need to launch DOCSIS 3.0 ubiquitously unless you need those speeds from a competitive perspective,” Bowick said.

Verizon this week began offering 50/20-Mbps service in its Virginia markets, along with nine other states where the highest-speed FiOS Internet service had previously been unavailable.