PHILADELPHIA—Comcast has announced that CommScope has delivered the first prototype Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) amplifiers to its advanced technology labs for system testing, a move that the cable operator is calling a major milestone in its transition to 10G services that will provide faster, more reliable broadband connections. 

Comcast first tested FDX amplifiers in September 2022, demonstrating the ability to deliver symmetrical speeds across a complete network-to-home 10G loop, reflective of architecture that is inclusive of the vast majority of the Comcast network.

“In 2022, we demonstrated that our Xfinity 10G Network is here for our customers—a brilliant network that delivers the next generation of connectivity to power the next generation of innovation,” said Elad Nafshi, executive vice president and chief network officer at Comcast Cable. “CommScope has been a key partner in our work and deploying their FDX amplifiers across our network is a critical next step. We’re excited to harden this technology and begin rolling them out across our network, so that we can continue to deliver the best connectivity experience to our customers.”

The prototype amplifiers will be used to understand and implement improvements ahead of the full deployment across Comcast’s network, which is expected to begin later in 2023. The amplifiers are based on the widely deployed CommScope STARLINE MiniBridger platform which Comcast currently uses as a part of its network architecture.

“The CommScope engineering team has been relentlessly working on this program and is making great strides,” said Guy Sucharczuk, senior vice president and president of Access Network Solutions (ANS), CommScope. “RF Amplifiers are one of the key growth products within our ANS portfolio, as evidenced by our recent one million units shipped announcement. These million amplifiers shipped, in addition to the prior existing millions of CommScope amplifiers in the market, become candidates for upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. We are excited to partner with Comcast to engineer this next generation of smart amplifiers.”

The delivery builds on a number of tech advances and demos in the last two years as cable operators have worked to implement 10G technologies. 

Recently, Comcast marked a major milestone in the nation’s largest and fastest multi-gig deployment, announcing that its latest Xfinity 10G Network upgrade will be launched to 10 million homes and businesses by the end of February. 

These locations now will have the foundational network enhancements in place to begin deploying DOCSIS 4.0, setting the stage for the introduction of new multi-gigabit symmetrical Internet options before the end of 2023 that will be delivered across Comcast’s existing networks with less cost, the company said. 

The full deployment of these technical capabilities will reach more than 50 million homes and businesses by 2025. In addition to fast speeds, DOCSIS 4.0 technologies will deliver even greater reliability and capacity to power multiple data-intensive applications. 

More information about the Xfinity 10G Network can be found here.  

LAS VEGAS—With wireless leaders breathlessly touting the emergence of the “fourth industrial revolution” about to be wrought by 5G at CES keynotes, some of the cable industry’s most high-profile figures convened here at the Four Seasons to gain a little marketing traction over their own newly concocted buzz brand, “10G.”

“No, we didn’t pick the name just because it’s twice as fast as 5G,” said NCTA president and CEO Michael Powell, who moderated the discussion that included CableLabs chief Phil McKinney, Cox Communications CEO Pat Esser and Comcast’s top technology executive, Tony Werner.

Related: Verizon CEO Vestberg Takes 5G Hype to 11 at CES

Indeed, Powell first publicly introduced the term 10G in October at the SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo Show in Atlanta, identifying the need for the cable industry to gain attention for its 10-gig-capable Full Duplex DOCSIS standard at a time when the wireless industry was busy capturing the “optimistic narrative of the future” with 5G.

While he said the more conservative cable industry doesn’t want to be as “hyperventilating” as the wireless industry in touting Full Duplex, Wednesday’s relatively small, and buttoned up, panel discussion served as a means of bringing the cable industry’s operators and technology vendor partners together to launch the 10G branding campaign.

Certainly, the event was all about marketing. Full Duplex standards have already been developed and codified by industry technology consortium CableLabs.

“There’s nothing new that has to be invented” in order to deploy Full Duplex DOCSIS, which is capable of symmetrical delivering 10 Gbps speeds, McKinney noted. “Everything has been specified. Everything has been designed. The technical work has been done and proven.

McKinney said field trials of Full Duplex will begin in 2020—an assertion agreed with by Werner.

The U.S. cable industry is still only about 80% finished with deploying the current standard, DOCSIS 3.1-enabled 1 gig services. And actual customer uptake rates are still too low for them to disclose any numbers.

But with the term 5G festooning almost every other technology product at CES, and wireless operators building the narrative of a ultra-high-bandwidth, low-latency multi-gigabit network powering all sorts of applications that we’re not yet using, but are about to use, the pressure is suddenly on for cable to beat its chest a little about Full Duplex.

Esser, for one, conceded that the bombardment of 5G hype is going to accelerate Cox’s deployment plans for Full Duplex.

“Whether the customer is asking for it or not, we don’t want to be the second one at the door with the product,” Esser said. “And what goes on the floor at CES probably motivates me more than anything.”

Wednesday’s presser, produced by CableLabs, followed a cable-industry-wide series of corporate blog postings by cable industry operators, vendors and technology orgs, all announcing their support for the new 10G brand, which the NCTA has trademarked.

Powell told MCN that industry leaders are still discussing ways to put the brand in front of consumers—10G stickers on modems, perhaps?

Much of the work, he noted, will be on the lobbying end, with the NCTA working to make policy leaders in Washington just as aware of Full Duplex as they are with 5G.