Comcast announced today that it will focus on aggressively deploying a DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure in 2008; the company intends to offer DOCSIS 3.0 capability in 20 percent of its market area by the end of the year. Currently the cable industry depends on the DOCSIS 1.1 specification, but that standard is limited to 36Mbps down and 10Mbps up.

Cable companies may have made a name for themselves as speed kings early in the broadband wars, but the current bandwith limitations of DOCSIS 1.1 leave it looking paltry indeed when compared to Verizon's FiOS 50Mbps down/30Mbps up packages. DOCSIS 3.0 won't completely close the gap between cable and fiber, but its transfer rates of up to 160Mpbs down and 120Mbps up will still offer a considerable improvement over currently deployed equipment. DOCSIS has already proven it's capable of delivering higher throughput speeds—last year Korean cable operator ARRIS demonstrated a pre-DOCSIS 3.0 network capable of delivering content above 100Mbps per second.

DOCSIS 3.0 also offers additional features that make it an attractive update, including enhanced network management and better security features. While not as fast as FiOS, DOCSIS should be easier (and cheaper) to deploy.

Unsurprisingly, Comcast plans to focus its rollout in market areas where the cable provider is already facing strong competition from Verizon. If you're a cable subscriber in Massachusetts or Virginia, 2008 may be a banner year for upgrading to a new tier of service. Those in areas where Comcast rules the roost in terms of speed will likely have to wait their turn, though the company will almost certainly focus buildout efforts in major cities.

Although full compliance with the DOCSIS specification requires the bonding of at least four upstream and four downstream channels, Comcast's first implementation of the standard will be downstream-only. According to Cable Digital News, that's not due to Comcast cutting corners—DOCSIS upstream channel bonding probably won't be available until late 2008-early 2009.

Up until now, Verizon's FiOS has largely been in a class of its own. AT&T's U-Verse may compete for the same market, but FiOS can provide a bandwidth pipe that simply blows AT&T 6Mbps service out of the water. Once DOCSIS 3.0 comes online, cable companies could potentially hit Verizon hard by offering enough bandwidth to satisfy the type of customer that would've once had no choice but FiOS, while offering their service at a lower price. And because of its decision to run fiber to the node and rely on copper for the last link to the home, AT&T will be sitting at the bottom of the bandwidth well looking up at both Verizon and Comcast—and other cable companies once they roll out DOCSIS 3.0.It'll still be years before a majority of consumers are DOCSIS 3.0-capable, but the first competitive rumblings are scheduled to start by the end of next year.