CABLE-TEC 2013: NCTA chief says DOCSIS needs a re-brand; cable needs to take more risks

ATLANTA—While Michael Powell absolutely loves the speeds of DOCSIS 3.1, he absolutely hates the name. Powell, president and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), is calling on the cable industry to toss out the DOCSIS moniker for cable’s broadband spec. Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ (SCTE’s) Cable-Tec Expo show here, he urged cable technologists to adopt a snazzier name and logo for DOCSIS 3.1 to play up its data transmission rates and broadband capacity in a fiercely competitive market where the bar is increasingly being set by Google Fiber and mobile LTE players. “We...