Netherlands gets 120MBPS DOCSIS, more of Europe to follow

While our American duopoly noodles around with caps and new ways to charge more for less instead of making real improvements, the rest of the world keeps moving forward. In the Netherlands, DOCSIS 3 is not just for a few, but will soon be universally available to all in Liberty Global’s footprint. Competitors will have to respond with better, cheaper or both. All of this is happening in a part of the world that is considerably more regulated, taxed and has higher labor costs than the US. So much for the declaration that the US marketplace is competitive. Are you reading this FCC Chairman Martin?

Liberty Global Inc. has launched a 120 Mbit/s broadband service in the Netherlands using EuroDocsis 3.0 gear, and says it plans to roll out the equipment and launch similar services throughout Europe in the coming 15 months. (See UPC Deploys EuroDocsis 3.0.)

The company’s UPC Netherlands business, which passes 2.7 million homes and has more than 660,000 broadband customers, has launched its new “Fiber Power” service in a handful of locations, including Amsterdam, and will roll it out through the rest of the country during the next few months, reaching all of its customers by next year, says a company spokesman.(Cable Digital News)