NETGEAR CM1000 – First DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem Ready To Pre-Order

Multi-gigabit Internet speeds might not be that far off thanks to the DOCSIS 3.1 specification that supports more than 10 gigabits per second downstream and 1 Gbps upstream using 4096 quadrature amplitude modulation. DOCSIS 3.0 was standardized in 2006 and tops out at around 1.2 Gbps down and 220 Mbps up. This makes the DOCSIS 3.1 specification nearly 10x faster than DOCSIS 3.0! That is a big deal to those that love streaming UHD videos, are looking for faster download speeds and those PC gamers that are always wanting more bandwidth and lower latencies. DOCSIS 3.1 basically ‘fattens’ the data pipe into homes and businesses and will be the foundation of the Internet of the future.

The Netgear CM1000-100NAS Ultra-High Speed Cable Modem is the first DOCSIS 3.1 cable model available to pre-order and can be purchased for $179.99 shipped. What speeds are we talking about on the Netgear CM1000? How about a 6Gbps theoretical download speeds! The bad news is that it is limited by the Gbit LAN port, so 1Gbps is the actual Internet service tier that this will be aimed at. The CM1000 has already been certified for XFINITY Gigabit/Blast/Extreme Internet plans by Comcast. The Netgear CM1000 DOCSIS 3.1 router is backwards compatible to DOCSIS 3.0, but it has not been certified by Charter or Time Warner cable networks.

Current Netgear DOCSIS 3.0 cable models run anywhere from $49.98 up to $129.99, so the first DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem is $50 more than the flagship Netgear DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem. The Netgear CM700 has max download speeds of 1.4 Gbps and the Netgear CM600 is rated at 960 Mbps, so it looks like the CM700, CM800 and CM1000 are all going to be pretty close to one another for theoretical performance as all have close to or over 1Gbps download speed ratings.

With more people streaming HD and UHD videos, using other applications on the cloud, and the explosion of Internet of Things devices we can see 1-Gig being popular. Videotron up in Montreal Canada already offers a high-end Internet service, Internet Giga, based on DOCSIS 3.0 that maxes out at 940 Mbps down and 50 Mbps up for C$149.95 per month. With 10Gbps symmetrical cable broadband trials coming in 2017 we’ll see DOCSIS 3.0 begin to phase out. Let’s just hope the cable Internet companies quickly boost their speeds!