100-Mbit Cable Internet To Hit U.S. In 2006

Broadband Internet access via TV cables can reach 100 Megabits per second as early as next year, 50 times faster than the average broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes, a Finnish firm said on Wednesday.

“This is a cost-efficient technology as we use the cable TV networks which are already in place,” Jukka Rinnevaara, Chief Executive of small-cap Finnish broadband equipment maker Teleste, told Reuters.

Teleste, whose rivals include big U.S. firms Scientific Atlanta and Cisco Systems Inc., said it would early next year bring to the market its Ethernet to the Home product which will give consumers access to 100Mb/s speed.

“Based on our research 30 Megabits per second is the absolute minimum in future homes. Just one TV program would take 10-20 Megabits per second of this alone. So, very fast we would reach a need for 30 Megabits, and also for 50 Megabits per second,” Pekka Rissanen, a Teleste executive told a news conference.

Rissanen said the cost of connecting a home with the new ethernet-to-the-home technology can vary between 50 euros ($60.28) and 200 euros ($241).

Link