ISPs May Start Offering 10 GB by 2024, CableLabs Says

The pace at which cable ISPs are upgrading to offer 1 GB speeds is accelerating, and history indicates they could start offering 10 GB speeds by 2024, CableLabs Director-Technology Policy Mark Walker blogged Thursday. Only 4 percent of U.S. households had access to 1 GB by the end of 2016, and by March 58 percent of such households -- or 66 percent of the cable broadband footprint -- had access to 1 GB or better from their local cable operator, CableLabs said. It said deployment of DOCSIS 3.1 across cable networks will accelerate that trend. So will full duplex DOCSIS 3.1, which will let cable operators provide symmetric gigabit service; coherent optic technologies that can increase the per-strand capacity in cable networks by orders of magnitude; and protocols for Wi-Fi proactive network maintenance that will address connectivity problems and increase wireless bandwidth, it said.