CableLabs® Certified™ Cable Modem Fact Sheet

CableLabs® Certified™ means that:

  • A certified cable modem has passed a series of tests which demonstrate that it will communicate (interoperate) with any qualified cable system headend.
  • A certified cable modem is ready for the retail market—it’s a recognition of interoperability among multiple certified vendors.
  • A certified cable modem complies with the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS), a specification developed by the cable industry and designed to allow modems made by multiple manufacturers to interface with headends made by multiple manufacturers.

CableLabs® Certified™ does NOT mean that:

  • All vendors’ products will perform the same. Actual performance will vary by vendor.
  • The high-speed cable modem specification won’t grow to include consumer friendly improvements and support of additional services as technology evolves.
  • CableLabs has recommended its purchase to CableLabs member companies, or that CableLabs members will deploy only certified modems.
  • CableLabs will provide technical operations support.

Background

Just as computer owners today know that they can buy a modem that will work on any phone line, cable industry leaders wanted their subscribers to be able to buy a CableLabs® Certified™ modem at retail and know that it will work in any cable system that deploys the DOCSIS platform.

These industry leaders knew that when proprietary, non-interoperable cable modems were deployed in cable systems, their subscribers loved the higher speeds and the "always-connected" feature of cable modems. But, these leaders also knew that to make cable modems broadly available and to take advantage of the economies of scale to get the lowest possible price, cable modems had to use a common interface. Thus, the DOCSIS specification process was born.

With three years of careful specification development, with input from CableLabs member companies and vendors (both traditional cable industry vendors and those new to the industry), the International Telecommunications Union made the DOCSIS specification an international standard. Then, CableLabs, again with input from its members and vendors, invited vendors to bring their equipment to CableLabs to test its interoperability with other vendors’ DOCSIS modems.

CableLabs developed a series of tests to measure compliance with the standard and, in so doing, ensure product interoperability.

The certification process was developed to provide retail purchasers with the confidence that a certified cable modem would interoperate with other DOCSIS products made by other manufacturers. Consumer research also was conducted to determine what would best communicate this concept of certification and interoperability to them. Thus, CableLabs® Certified™ was born.

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