DOCSIS 3.0 Takes Off Worldwide

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Less than two years after CableLabs approved the first DOCSIS 3.0 equipment for interoperability, cable operators and ISPs are starting to roll out wideband service rapidly throughout the world.

From the United Kingdom to Japan, from western Canada to eastern Brazil, cable providers have now introduced DOCSIS 3.0 service in more than 20 countries across the globe, including most of the big Western industrialized nations. Other countries will likely see their first wideband rollouts in 2010 as smaller, regional cable operators join the parade, larger, multi-national MSOs gear up for more extensive DOCSIS 3.0 deployments across country borders, and wideband equipment vendors step up their product shipments to service providers.

"I think we've got it down to a science," says Steve Krapp, C4 product manager for Arris. "The speed at which it's (equipment) going out is really incredible."

In the U.S., Cablevision Systems has rolled out DOCSIS 3 over its 5 million home footprint in April 2009. Comcast, North America's largest MSO, now plans to deploy wideband to nearly 65 percent of its 50-million home footprint by the end of 2009, up from its initial year-end goal of 65 percent.

Such other major U.S. MSOs as Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications are all rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 in at least one market too. In one prominent example, Time Warner Cable inaugurated wideband service in parts of New York City late last month, making the service available in Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Plans call for expanding the rollout to the rest of its New York City service area by next spring.

But, even with this activity, wideband has become much more than an American phenomenon. More than two dozen international cable operators are now rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 in the rest of the world—including the biggest cable operators in Western Europe and Asia, the four largest MSOs in Canada, and the biggest cable provider in Latin America—as they scramble to compete with strong national phone companies, emerging fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks, and other broadband rivals.

"D3 is deploying very quickly across Europe and Asia," says Peter Percosan, CTO of Cable Europe Labs. Percosan, previously executive director of broadband strategy for Texas Instruments' Digital Connected Home business, noted that cable operators in France and South Korea started deploying bonded-channel DOCSIS several years ago, before there were even approved DOCSIS 3.0 products. "So, very high-speed data has been a priority outside of North America for some time," he says.

In fact, most industry observers view the Asia/Pacific region, not the U.S., as the biggest champion of wideband these days. At least a dozen traditional MSOs and cable ISPs now offer DOCSIS 3.0 service across the Far East, with more providers gearing up to join them. Deployment activity has been particularly frenzied in Japan and South Korea, where cable operators are contending against dominant national phone companies, powerful ISPs, and other strong rivals building state-of-the-art FTTP networks.

"Asia is leading the way," says Chris Kohler, senior director of engineering for Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility unit. With Motorola having shipped 300,000 to 500,000 DOCSIS 3.0 devices worldwide so far, he estimated that "close to half" of that total has been shipped to Asian providers.

In Japan, for instance, Liberty Global's Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) has been delivering wideband service to broadband subscribers for more than two years. Since introducing a pre-DOCSIS 3.0, channel-bonding offering in the Kansai region in Sept. 2007, Japan's largest MSO has extended its reach throughout all five of its major regions. As a result, J:COM, which passes about 12.5 million households, now offers DOCSIS 3.0 service to just about all of its 1.5 million cable modem customers.

Back in April, J:COM reported that it had already signed up 100,000 subscribers for its wideband tier, making it the first cable operator in the world to achieve that milestone. J:COM also boasts the fastest commercially deployed cable broadband service in the world, with download speeds of up to 160 Mbps and upload speeds as high as 10 Mbps. Company officials say more than one-quarter of all new broadband subscribers are now signing up for this service, which costs about $65 a month.

Although it generally got off to a later start than Asia, Europe is quickly catching up. As in the Far East, at least a dozen cable European providers are now offering wideband service in one or more major markets. The ever-expanding list includes: Virgin Media in the U.K.; Numericable in France and Belgium; Liberty Global's UPC Broadband in the Netherlands, Austria, and Hungary; ONO in Spain; Welho in Finland; Com Hem in Sweden; Ziggo in the Netherlands; ZON TVCabo and Cabovisao in Portugal; Starman in Estonia; and Cablecom in Switzerland. DOCSIS 3.0 launches are expected in a number of other nations by early next year, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Russia, Norway, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

"Today, most of Cable Europe Labs' members have deployed D3-based products," Percosan says. "Deploying D3 has been a central part of our members' plans of record and our customers are benefiting."

In the U.K., for example, Virgin Media has already finished its rollout of the DOCSIS 3.0 spec throughout the nation, after starting that deployment late last year. Virgin, which passes 12.6 million British homes, is offering download speeds as high as 50 Mbps to its 3.7 million cable modem subscribers. Virgin has also started testing a 200-Mbps downstream service in Ashford, Kent, using four bonded 8 MHz channels. In addition, Britain's largest MSO is trialing a 10-Mbps upstream service in its Northeast and Midlands territories.

To mark the completion of its 3.0 rollout, Virgin slashed the price of its standalone 50-Mbps service to about $63 a month on Sept. 1, down from about $82 a month previously. The British MSO also cut the tier price to about $46 a month when bundled with a phone line, down from about $58 a month before. Plus, it started giving away an MSO-branded "Freedom" notebook to new and existing customers for no extra charge if they signed up for other services and committed to a 24-month contract.

Like their U.S. counterparts, cable operators in the rest of the world are rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 to deliver greater bandwidth capacity and higher downstream data speeds to cable modem customers. Besides J:COM, for instance, UPC Broadband, ONO, ZON TVCabo, Singapore's StarHub, and several other Asian providers have all introduced wideband tiers with downstream speeds of greater than 100 Mbps.

"For now, the primary driver for D3 is speed," Percosan says. "In Europe, a 50 Meg offer is commonplace. In Asia, 100 Meg is the new 20 Meg. It is ubiquitous."

But European and Asian cable providers also face some unique regional forces, ranging from competitive nationwide FTTP networks to government-imposed broadband mandates to cost-efficiency pressures.

"DOCSIS 3.0 is being deployed for different reasons around the world," says Floyd Wagoner, director of global marketing and communications for access networks in Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility division. For instance, he notes, FTTP competition from national telcos and ISPs tends to be stiffer in Asia than elsewhere, pushing cable operators to embrace wideband faster so they can match their rivals' offerings.

In Europe, on the other hand, many cable providers are adopting DOCSIS 3.0 to get more bang for their buck by using their existing broadband networks, equipment, and bandwidth more efficiently. "It's not so much for speed as for the efficiency of capital allocation," says Chirag Trivedi, vice president of professional services for Arris. "They're looking more at (reducing) capital expenditures, at driving down the cost per downstream or cost per chassis."

Other regional disparities in DOCSIS 3.0 deployment are emerging as well. Unlike their counterparts in North America, Latin America, and Asia, several European MSOs are already installing embedded multimedia terminal adapters (E-MTAs) in wideband subscribers' homes, even if they're not taking voice service yet. The idea is to avoid having to replace the modems later once voice is chosen.

"In Europe, the trend is starting to go from data to E-MTA voice service," says Motorola's Kohler. "We're deploying 3.0 E-MTAs in Europe today… I don't see it as much in other regions.

In another key regional distinction, Asian service providers are starting to offer IP-based video applications over their wideband networks. Take LG Powercom and SK Broadband in South Korea. Both operators have begun using their new DOCSIS 3.0 platforms and CMTS bypass architectures to pipe IPTV service to their broadband subscribers.

"In Korea, we are already seeing IPTV as an important next-generation IP service," Percosan says. "Next-generation television services in Europe will also include an IP element… We will be looking toward service enhancement, which could be in the form of interactivity, increased diversity of client devices (such as IP personal media players, game consoles, phones, etc.), simplified whole home support, etc."

Plus, unlike Europe or the Americas, Asia has already seen the public debut of upstream channel-bonding. Japan CableNet, Japan's second largest MSO, introduced upstream bonding in late March with the launch of its new "Speed Star 160" wideband tier. With four bonded 6 MHz channels, Japan CableNet can potentially offer upstream speeds as high as 120 Mbps.

In the coming year, industry insiders expect to see other cable operators throughout the world move to upstream channel-bonding because of growing subscriber demand for more upstream bandwidth. "Upstream channel-bonding will become more of a prominent issue in 2010," says Arris' Krapp, whose company is supplying wideband CMTSs and cable modems to Japan CableNet. "We are talking to operators elsewhere in the world about testing our upstream channel bonding."

Industry experts also predict that data and voice gateways, which integrate modem and router functions, will surge in popularity worldwide as cable operators seek to meet the growing home networking needs of subscribers. "We're seeing a lot of interest in DOCSIS 3.0 gateways, whether standard data gateways or with voice added," Kohler says. He projects that gateways could account for as much as 30 percent of total DOCSIS 3.0 device sales volume by 2012, up from perhaps 10 percent today.

Finally, the experts see data transmission speeds climbing steadily across the globe. While several MSOs in North America, Europe, and Asia already offer downstream speeds higher than 100 Mbps, such blazing speeds should become much more the norm next year.

"The bar will be continually rising," Kohler says. "I would not be surprised to see 100 Mbps in every operator's portfolio by the end of 2010."