The cable companies will continue to rely on Data Over Ca...

[rickatk]

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@mdk wrote:

> 2020-09-15 11:28 AM --  Just wanted to know if I should be expecting Shaw to be installing fiber to the house any time soon?

Soon? I remember reading that Shaw has done FTTH (Fiber To The Home) in some parts of Calgary, but that's not where I live. 

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The cable companies will continue to rely on Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications (Docsis) for a while yet. The protocol allows for leveraging existing infrastructure to carry lots of bandwidth at minimal infrastructure costs. DOCSIS is good up to the 10Gbps , so I think it will be a while before we see Shaw and Rogers showing up at the door with fibre cable in tow.

In the meantime, enjoy the ride. With the exception of Uber high speed bragging rights I am quite happy with with my cable service and bandwidth offered for all my devices. I also like the minimal equipment required.

[rstra]

@rickatk You are correct, but I doubt Rogers/Shaw will ever do a serious fiber rollout, they will continue with docsis. The next big step will be 5G to the home,

The telcos needed to rollout fiber to the home, cable companies didn’t.

[rickatk]

@rstra I have heard 5G mentioned as a future tech for the home internet. Is that the same as 5G for mobile?

I agree, there is still room to grow on the Docis front for cable cos, which I am overall very pleased. 

[rstra]

@rickatk 

Yes, it is the same technology. Verizon has 5g to the home in certain markets. All that is needed is a gateway in the house, but no wires. 

[rickatk]

Hmmm I had a quick look at the 5G Home options. Interesting solutions. Very early to say if this will be a viable technology in the real life market. Probably a long time coming for us in Canada. I can’t imagine what the cost would be considering our sky high 5G mobile costs. 

I don't find anything wrong with Docis and 4.0 is around the corner. I agree the Telcos are making a big deal about how fast fibre is. all I see is a lot of wires and conversions(coax/ethernet) right now.

[rickatk]

@rstra I came across a well informed tech yesterday. I was just checking the state of my service. This fellow advised all things were working well. 1445Gbps down and 100Gbps up on my setup. He confirmed that wifi certainly slows things down for a variety of reasons. In my case everything is wifi. No wired connections anymore. The price is not getting the max speeds but bandwidth is really good. Very handy for 25+ devices and no wires. Interestingly I see Shaw is now focusing their marketing on running more devices in the home rather than total speed. Same for Comcast. This is probably more accurate marketing (Bandwith) than touting Fibre like speeds. The tech suggested I run two Speedtests simultaneously. This would give me an idea how my connection is doing. For me 700mb down x2 on my iPhone nets 1400mbps which is not too shabby. Day to day all my devices including 4 wireless TVs works quite well.

[rstra]

@rickatk 

Yes, many people don’t get it, the gig speed isn’t for one device, but spread out over multiple devices. I really appreciate Shaw upgrading my 300/15 to 300/100 as I do a lot of cloud stuff. My backups, videos, pictures are uploading fast now and my security cameras are performing much better. 

[mdk]

@rickatk --  I can’t imagine what the cost would be considering our sky-high 5G mobile costs. 

Would your connection be using 5G to a Shaw/Rogers 5G box be somewhere in your very-immediate neighbourhood, e.g., one or two boxes (up on a telephone-pole) placed on your block on a residential street, not "long-range" to a 5G antenna that is 1 or 2 Km away?  So, the hope is that the pricing of such "short-range" 5G will be competitive with Telus Fiber  or Shaw Fibre+ wiring.

I think that at some point, those 5G boxes would connect to a fiber-optic cable "backbone" -- either on your street, or a connecting street.  Definitely, not 5G all the way from your home to the Shaw/Telus "Central Office".

Would that box on the telephone-pole provide service to maybe 6 houses (3 on your side of the street, and 3 on the other side), implying that there will be multiple boxes on your street?  Compare to the number of fire-hydrants on your street -- certainly there is not one per house.

[rickatk]

@mdk I cant say for certainty but I would think the 5G boxes would be erected near the house perhaps on a pole outside or a tower nearby like cel service. 

I haven't heard of any plans for Home 5G in our future. The Cable cos seem to be hanging their hats on coax and Docis for now.

[mdk]

@rickatk -- I haven't heard of any plans for Home 5G in our future.

Neither have I, but I am not a "Shaw Insider", and none of my friends are employed by Shaw. Even if they knew, they would not "spill the beans".

But, as more new developments are built/expanded, such as Royal Bay (west of Victoria), who knows if Shaw will pull FTTH, or deploy 5G.