Silentjosh37 t1_iuowntf wrote
Reply to comment by drnick5 in Rhode Island leads all states in the most significant change in internet speeds since 2020 by FotoGrapher19
Moving everyone off the older DOCSIS 3.0 modems and to the newer 3.1 and 4.0(only in test labs at the moment) modems providers (Cox and i3broadband) will allow for higher upload speeds as they are able to reclaim signal by using the more efficient OFDM channels for traffic. It is a limitation of RF networks that have to be reworked and that takes time and money.
Some providers are upgrading the modems at no cost actually giving a free rental modem to get people off the older modems. It is hard to get people to upgrade their technology because they don't understand that their "brand new"(9 years old) modem is very out of date and 8 docsis channels just doesn't cut it and they are dragging down the rest of the herd.
The majority of people don't need to worry about upload speeds, yes there are some people that need higher upload speeds but most people won't notice a difference. Yeah its great to see symetrical up and down but the majority of people need more down than up.
You would be surprised how little bandwidth people use in a day. Streaming 4k video can be done with as little as 15mbps and yes as you add more devices youll need more bandwidth, but simply dropping down to 1080p and 6 will do you just fine most times.
Higher speeds are coming but it takes time to do things like mid band and high band splits as well as for the technology to catch up.
drnick5 t1_iupczet wrote
Oh I understand fully why they're moving everyone to docsis 3.1. I used to run into old modems all the time (talking docsis 2) and I'd tell them to order a new one off Amazon and call Cox to activate it. in some cases they were paying for faster speeds (100/10) but still on a modem that couldn't get anywhere close to those sleeds.
As you said, most people don't need Gigabit or even anywhere close. But I've had friends and clients call for internet and are told something along the lines of "You can pay $X for 25 down/5 up" or very slightly more for Gigabit (I can't remember the speeds exactly so 25/5 could be a slight exaggeration. But it was so drastic that it made sense to go to gigabit.) In my case it was literally $5 more a month to go from 200 to gigabit. But every year I have to call and play the game and get a new promo.
Never let Cox give you a "free" modem. They did that to me at my business years ago and I found out a year later they started charging me for it at one of my renewals. This went on for almost 3 years. Thing is.. 2 years prior it died, so I replaced it with my own 3.1 modem (I keep a few in stock at work) and sent back their broken one. they were literally charging me for my own equipment.
At any rate. While "higher speeds are coming" we won't see that til docsis 4 which is guess is years and years down the road.
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