Comcast boss shows off 1Gb cable broadband

US cable operator Comcast, has demonstrated a broadband network running at 1Gbps on the downlink. The company’s chief executive officer Brian L. Roberts gave the demo at the National Cable & Telecoms Association (NCTA) 2011 show in Chicago, by downloading 23 episodes of the US television show 30 Rock, representing nine hours of content, in around 90 seconds.

“This demonstration of extreme 1Gbps speed on our network is another leap forward in innovation, and we’re excited to work with developers to see what amazing new applications could take advantage of the next evolution of broadband,” Roberts said.

The high speeds were achieved by bonding 32 channels together over the company’s DOCSIS network. The cable company’s DOCSIS 3.0 network currently offers subscribers a maximum of 105Mbps download .

At the same time as the speed demo, Roberts also showed off the companies new cable TV interface dubbed “Xcalibur”, which he said was entirely cloud-based.

Tony Werner, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Comcast, said in a blog post that “Today, Comcast offers Internet speeds up to 105 Mbps — and we’ve been increasing speeds for our customers every year since we launched in 2002 with just 1.5 Mbps of speed. We deliver more speed to more homes than any other ISP in America, and we’ll keep up that pace as the Internet continues to evolve.”

No timescale was given as to when 1Gbps speeds would be made available to US consumers.

Earlier at the NCTA show cable equipment supplier Arris demoed a cable network operating as fast as 4.5Gpbs on the downlink, showing the potential of HFC networks.