Today NBN Co has announced that it will be enabling "cutting edge cable technology" to its HFC network over the coming months. The new technology, known as DOCSIS 3.1, should double the downstream capacity of the HFC network, increasing the network's ability to meet demand, especially during peak times.
What that means, basically, is that the network will be able to handle more users jumping on at the same time for data-heavy activities, like streaming Netflix. The HFC upgrade should see less congestion on the network and more reliability in terms of speed.
The arrival of DOCSIS 3.1 coincides with NBN's plans to ramp up activations of HFC connections across the country, which were previously frozen to await the upgrade. NBN Co reports it expects to activate around 100,000 homes and businesses every month from now through to April next year. The HFC network is expected to serve around 3 million premises by 2020.
Meanwhile, existing HFC connections come with equipment that is already DOCSIS 3.1 capable, which means that homes and businesses with HFC already installed should benefit from the network ugrade as soon as it comes to their area.
As well as increasing network capacity, DOCSIS 3.1 technology has the ability to enable the HFC network to deliver speeds of up to 1Gbps. That's 10x faster than the fastest NBN connection commercially available today – NBN 100.
However, NBN Co Chief Technology Officer, Ray Owen, said in a statement that NBN will not be offering these speeds to consumers. "That is not our core focus at this present time."
Sounds like it's not ruled out for the future, though. Guess we'll just have to stay tuned.
Jacqui Dent
Editorial Strategist
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