DOCSIS 4.0: Vodafone Germany tests cable with 10 Gbit/s

Vodafone Germany has started testing the DOCSIS 4.0 standard in the cable network. This should make speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s possible. It had already decided to expand the cable network at the end of October 2022.

Vodafone Germany tests DOCSIS 4.0

In October, Vodafone Germany had announced the expansion of its cable network, aiming to connect up to seven million households in Germany via fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) – within the next six years. This should enable speeds of up to 3 Gbit/s.

For DOCSIS 4.0, capacities of up to 10 Gbit/s were promised via FibreCo’s hybrid fiber network. This standard is apparently already being tested, as can be seen from a new presentation by the parent company dated November 15, 2022.

According to the presentation, in the long term around five percent of households are expected to receive speeds of over 3 Gbit/s in the fast “high-split 3.1” standard, while DOCSIS 4.0 is currently in the testing and validation phase. A corresponding schedule for the higher speeds does not yet exist.

However, DOCSIS 3.1 is already available in around 95 percent of the network. Ben Padovan, Group Head Corporate Communications of the Vodafone Group, confirmed to the magazine Golem.de that the slide of the presentation revolved around the rollout of the existing hybrid network – this refers to Germany, as the Vodafone Group only operates a hybrid coaxial fiber network in this country, the magazine added.

Vodafone is continuously working on expanding its own hybrid fiber network and improving transmission speeds with the help of node splits, DOCSIS High-split 3.1 and new technologies such as DOCSIS 4.0, according to the presentation. However, it is not yet possible to estimate how quickly the expansion will proceed or when up to 10 Gbit/s can be expected in the hybrid fiber network.

The fact is, however, that the appropriate end devices must first be created to enable such high speeds. Vodafone is currently working on the first chipsets and cable routers, as well as other network components, as it revealed in a statement in September. Before these can be tested, however, the design of the company’s own fiber-optic network must first be adapted to these requirements.