Motorola debuts world's first retail DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 2nd 2009 11:03PM
posted Jun 2nd 2009 11:03PM
You'll still need the love and support of your dear cable provider, but if you're within range of DOCSIS 3.0 service, you can bypass at least one aspect of dealing with your local 
Bought one a few months ago and haven't been able to use it. While Motorola states that it's 100% backwards compatible, cox would like to disagree. They keep stating that it takes a whole different config to enable it. II have tried several times over the past few months to activate it with no avail.
meh
Surprise surprise, a Motorola modem that still looks like shit...
Motorola's really the only company with a design department that can say "at least it's not curvy shit". This box will fit nicely between my garbage can and desk.
P.S. FOR GOD'S SAKES SOMEBODY ELSE MAKE A MODEM THAT ISPs USE!!! PLEASE!!!
Your problem IS coming from a company named "Cox"...
I think that looks nice for what it is. Looks much better than the one on my desk anyway.
@RoboDan - You're really going to get that worked up over a cable modem design?
Looks okay. Nicer than my current cable modem, which is ugly and utilitarian. And even though it's on display next to my TV, I have never once thought "man, I need a better-looking cable modem."
The only time you should be looking at your cable modem is if it's not working... who CARES what it looks like so long as it works?!
It is currently listed on Cox website as approved. I have one and it works great. Though the first guy I called to provision the modem wouldn't do it. Had to call back and the second guy did it no problem.
That would make sense. If you got it a few months ago, they probably didn't have a config file for it. The modem actually pulls down a file that tells it static or DHCP for IP, as well as the speeds you're supposed to get.
These have been out for a few weeks already in San Diego, CA. They run for $99... I got one last week and it's pretty fast, very nice!
$99.97
http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=32664&adid=7892712&subid=25899772&type=
Don't cable companies GIVE you a modem?
Yeah, to "rent" for the rest of your life. We have been paying "rent" on our cable boxes since the dawn of time. Those things have more than once been payed for in full by us.
Yeah they do, but Rogers here for example implement some throttling on the modem they supply. Getting a different modem could fix that.
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-444426.html
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=415582
They rent you one. Usually for $3-$5 per month.
Cox OC gave everybody a free one about 9 months ago so they could get everyone up to DOCSIS 2.0.
And its not always a nice one. This Terayon TJ 715x of mine works... but man it puts up a fuss way too much - especially when you actually use the internet for something a bit heavier than just checknig e-mail. It also gets way too hot, way too fast.
I really dont understand why you would buy this modem? If you company supports it would they not give you a modem?
road runner gives me hell about changing modems, my email and everything is tied to the mac so when i finally get someone smart enough to change macs for me, it screws up my useless email (which you can't send via smtp from anything other than a pc, mobile phone etc, plus its blocked overseas) nice of them huh
They charge you to rent the modem. Depending on the cost it is cheaper to just buy one. Like paying your credit card bill. It's cheaper to pay the lump sum up front than pay over time.
I bought my modem.
my isp doesn't charge for the modem
then you signed a contract to stay with them for 1-2 years. the current scientific atlanta and moto cable modems only cost about 40 bucks if you buy them outright from the cable company. 5 x 12 = $60 (or 50% more). so if it's between a monthly rental/12+ month agreement it might be worth the $40 to keep your freedom (and possibly pay less than renting).
That's weird, I have Road Runner as well (currently living in SoCal) and just bought a D-Link wireless router to replace the shitty Netgear all-in-one modem/wireless router they rented to me for $5 a month. All I had to do was go into their office, tell them I wanted to return it for a regular motorola modem and that was it. Went home, plugged everything in and never had a problem since *knock on wood*.
"There's no word on price just yet, but don't expect such a luxury item to run you cheap, okay?"
Since when is a $100 high-speed modem a luxury item? I think the price is reasonable. A quick google even showed one for $79.
Exactly. $89 shipped. Engadget is trying to make some big mystery out of nothing, because someone didn't do a simple search. I got it last Friday. It is on Comcast's official support list. I have my service being installed this coming Saturday. Where's the mystery?
I'm on Charter and they can barely even manage to keep their internet up and running, much less find the time and money to upgrade their equipment to docsis 3.0.
I'm hoping Charter goes completely under and someone else comes in takes over their territory... maybe then I can get some reliable interwebs along with a company that can upgrade the equipment at the headend to support docsis 3.0 and much higher speeds.
saw this in BestBuy months ago. never saw after that. must have been giving a preview of whats to come like they have been lately
I already own one of these. Bought it off Amazon. Just waiting on Comcast to get it's act together.
Moto may be quiet on the cell front for a few more months, but the broadband side, including cable, has been doing great. Can't wait for the monopolies to roll this out someday, so we can all hit our caps faster.
I played with the one pictured a year ago while testing the speeds. Obviously it was a test model and we had to send it back but it was nice to have the wide pipes for a little bit. There were 3 other competing brands: RCA, ARRIS, Scientific Atlanta. Each had a different quirk and cisco was the other vendor.
Guys, the only features of Docsis 3.0 that are deployed even minimally are downstream channel bonding and IPv6 (IPv6 for the modem itself, for management; no IPv6 for the PC behind it just yet). Wait until you hear that the bonding is up and running on your node before you lay out the cash, or else this is pointless. Note also that the Broadcom CMTS chipset is just now being readied for the Upstream Channel Bonding, so this feature is really not in the field at all. The reason you can't bring them up with the old config is because SNMP must be explicitly turned on via a TLV in the config file. Technically they do come up but can't be managed without the SNMP enabled. What this means is that the config file that is used by the MSO for the older modems needs tweaking, and the MSO isn't ready to do that until it is tested with the older modems. This behavior is as per spec, it is not a bug. Also, ditch your Terayon; it's junk. Get a modem with a Broadcom or TI chipset instead. (Basically anything else on the market).
The SB6120 is a great modem, but Docsis 3.0 needs to be deployed in the CMTS before the user will see any benefit.
i have had this modem for a month now on comcast. i easily have rand speedtest and gotten no less then 20mbps download and 6mbps up.
I've been running this modem for the last month on comcast in San Francisco. 50/10 speeds for $99 shipped from Amazon. No problems at all activating it.
Bought one from Fry's as old modem burned out. Seems to work okay with Charter, but computers freeze up few times a day and when I check, the modem and router appear fine. Reboot it and computers are back up and running. Not sure where problem lies - Modem, Charter, or Airport Extreme. But takes me 30 seconds to reboot it - not a bad workaround for now, but hope to solve the problem soon.
Purchased mine for $119 and $40 rebate
Anyone know if this works well with Verizon's FiOS?
Yes, Coaxial Cable and Fiber Optic are exactly the same. You could actually plug your fax machine into this and it would send flaming faxes to the neighbors at 50,000 pages per minute. The problem is keeping the fax machine tray full of flaming paper :-/
@Andrew
Freakin' hilarious.
Hopefully with all those holes it wont get as hot as I find cable modems generally do.
Hey, This isn't really that new.
I picked up this Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 Modem at Bestbuy.com a couple of weeks ago for $115.
I have Comcast Cable which has been advertising service up to 50Mbps with a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. So, I thought I would give 'em a try.
I current pay for their Blast! service, which ususally hits speedtest.net between 19 to 21Mbps on the download. 3.3 on the upload.
I worked with Comcast over the weekend to try out the modem at their highest 50 Mbps speed.
What was interesting was that although web pages seemed to pop up faster, the speedtest.net download test showed SLOWER speed.... About 13Mbps 3.5 on the upload.
I tried some other internet speed tests and saw no really speed difference with the DOCSIS 3.0 Modem, although the web pages SEEMED to pop up faster.
What was also interesting was that this Motorola modem, when slowed down to DOCSIS 2 speeds, was actually SLOWER then my old Linksys Cable Modem.
After determining that the speed difference wasn't worth the price at this time. I had Comcast put my Linksys Cable Modem back on line at the Blast! DOCSIS 2.0 level and returned the Motorola modem to Best Buy.
I might try again next year when Motorola and/or Linksys have version 2 of their DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modems and Comcast is offering triple play special with the DOCSIS 3.0 services.
Mark
I forgot to mention, I have been renting this from Comcast for a couple of months now. After a day+ of them saying it would only work with a service call, I got the right person to apparently click the right button and it worked. A month later when the bill came I noticed I wasn't getting their DOCSIS 3.0 service, but their highest 2.0 package. Now my speed tests did fair better after the modem change, web pages popped a little faster, but after the "speed boost" on large downloads it was roughly the same. Big kicker is, I hit the 250gb cap they have (close to 3x the limit). Now I could have done this with the old 2.0 modem. So basically you are getting to your limit faster now. A couple years ago I got called when it was 200gb cap, but I would have thought with the new 3.0 and EVERYONE USING THE INTERNET FOR EVERYTHING, that their wouldn't be a limit. When the abuse department called, they couldn't locate the link from their main page to the terms page that said there was a limit. So he started telling me a couple folders deep web addy that I guess I was supposed to know. So while he rambled, I gave him the location of the link on their main page. But as he suggested, it was probably just a unprotected router or a virus/malware on my computer. Sure it was, so my router is in a rubber now. safe & clean
This is not the first retail DOCSIS3.0 Modem. SMC has a couple available for the last 4-5 month now. The SMCD3GN-RES comes even with wireless N connectivity. The regular modem is the SMCD3CM with about the same specs as the Motorola.
I was checking Comcast's prices on their website for the faster DOCSIS 3 connections, and came across this marketing gem for the "Ultra" package:
"increased frame rates for gamers."
http://www.comcast.com/shop/buyflow2/productsexisting.cspx?SourcePage=Internet
Figured someone would get a larf out of it. I love marketing.
Shaw, in western Canada has two options; rent for $5 a month or buy for $50. In neither option do they require a contract. HOPEFULLY, then can switch over to 3 soon; I would be all over that.
I got mine months ago via (don't LOL to hard, I feel sick about it, but they had best price) Best Buy and have it running on my Craptastic Comcrap ISP in Chicago. No issues. I even have the broad band blue light going instead of the green ones which tells me my area is using the 3.0. at least according to the Motorola pdf.
I bought one from Frys in AZ for $99. Found out that the throughput on my older linksys VPN router was only 4.5Mb! So anyone getting slow speeds should connect directly to the modem and do speed tests to see if its your router slowing things down. I was getting 20Mb connectect directly to the modem. Bought a new router and get 17mb now.
I get a consistent 45-50 down and 8-10 up with mine. No service call required although comcast was confused at first. Took them about 20 minutes but works fine now.