WOW! launches pilot program to prep for DOCSIS 4.0

WideOpenWest (WOW!) launched a pilot program in its Panama City, Florida market to test multi-gig speeds, paving the way for future DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades.

The trial will see WOW! offer speeds of 2 Gbps download and 200 Mbps upload to a select group of customers. WOW! said these upgrades will become available to both current and new subscribers “in additional markets in the near future.”

Gary Nilsen, SVP of access networks at WOW!, told Fierce Telecom the trial’s purpose is to prepare “for the evolution of our hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) networks, which will include an expansion of DOCSIS 3.1 capabilities and ultimately a path to DOCSIS 4.0.”

The operator chose the Panama City market not only because it met parameters that “are most suitable to provide comprehensive test results,” but also because Panama City “is a vibrant and growing community with great customer demographics.”

Florida – particularly the central part of the state – is also where WOW! is undertaking a slew of greenfield fiber deployments. The company has said it’s aiming to reach 150,000 homes passed in Florida’s Seminole and Orange Counties.

Nilsen said 2 Gbps download and 200 Mbps upload speeds are the highest tier WOW! currently offers on HFC. WOW!’s fiber markets, on the other hand, have access to symmetrical speeds of up to 5 Gbps.

But Nilsen noted WOW! is testing higher speeds for cable over distributed access architecture (DAA).

WOW! CTO Henry Hryckiewicz said in a statement the Panama City trials “are an essential step in our broader plan to expand the capability of our network, in a very cost effective manner, for our legacy markets across the Midwest and Southeast.”

As for what DOCSIS 4.0 method WOW! is looking into, Nilsen said, “Like many operators, our current consideration is to use ESD over FDX.”

Both extended spectrum (ESD) and full duplex (FDX) DOCSIS 4.0 are set to deliver 10G capabilities for cable operators in different ways.

ESD, which is also favored by Charter and Cox, involves adding more spectrum, jumping from a max of 1.2GHz in DOCSIS 3.1 to 1.8GHz. Whereas FDX, which Comcast and Mediacom are leveraging, sticks with a 1.2GHz-sized pipe but uses noise cancellation to allow upstream and downstream traffic to be transmitted over the same spectrum.

“Technology, however, is continuing to evolve and we will continue to evaluate the most appropriate approach well into the future,” Nilsen concluded. “Fortunately, the early work we are doing provides maximum flexibility for the various solutions.”