MONTREAL – While the target speed is 100 Mbps, the new technology being deployed by Videotron to boost its broadband capabilities can hit a blinding 320 Mbps in the lab.
The Montreal MSO and supplier Cisco outlined their work on their DOCSIS 3.0-driven wideband solution – otherwise known as the relatively new channel bonding technology. It’s the first MSO in North America to move towards deployment of the technology which has been built to deal with ever-growing bandwidth requirements as more and more high quality video and rich multi-media is shared among friends over their broadband pipes.
For more than a month Videotron customers have been successfully experimenting with increased speeds based on the Cisco Wideband solution. Videotron and Cisco are projecting they will reach the 100 Mbps objective in the next few months while maintaining the high stability and reliability of the Videotron IP NGN. The upstream capabilities will remain the same, for now.
"As a leader in providing Internet services to the Quebec market, Videotron is pleased to once again surpass the industry limits with its leading-edge technology, its high performance network and its partnership with Cisco. This alliance enables us to stand far ahead of the competition with regards to delivery of Internet services, not only in our markets, but also in Canada," said Robert Dépatie, Videotron president and CEO.
"As video on the Internet continues to drive the need for unprecedented levels of speed and bandwidth, cable and service providers are under increasing pressure to transform themselves from being a ‘service’ provider into an ‘experience’ provider in order to compete in today’s competitive markets," added Surya Panditi, vice-president and general manager, optical technology and CMTS Business Unit, Cisco.
For example, with the new Cisco Wideband solution, a high-definition clip of 50 MB could be downloaded in approximately four seconds and a song, in a fraction of a second.
The tests will continue for a few months. Until then, Videotron aims at finalizing an attractive offer while targeting to possibly make this service more broadly available during the 2007 calendar year.
The company declined to release potential pricing for the new service, nor the costs of the upgrade, which will include a swap out of customers’ modems. Other than the modems, additional cards in the CMTS is the main addition, meaning the upgrade costs will be low.
The modems Videotron plans to deploy are the Linksys WCM 300, which can support up to eight bonded channels, and Scientific Atlanta’s DPC2505, that can support three.
