Actually I find it interesting that they would upgrade to this level without fiber, but it can be done. The amount of bandwidth available would be the same in either case though, with or without fiber.
Also, there are 2 upgrades that might apply here. There is no 850 MHz system on the market. It is either 750 MHz or 860 MHz. Perhaps they meant 860. If that is the case, that's a whole lot of bandwidth, the newest system out there. There is very little 860 equipment to be had at the present time. 750 MHz is very prevalent and a standard upgrade level these days. The amount of bandwidth basically equates to the number of TV channels your cable system can carry. On a crude level, 1 TV channel takes 6 MHz, but there are some blank spots, and the 1 to 50 MHz is reserved for return services. So rough numbers, a 550 MHz system has 77 channels max., 750 MHz system could handle 116 channels. In reality, they would probably load it up with about 80 channels and use the rest for digital channels, music, pay-per-view, Internet data, and telephone.
It can be done all on coax cable, but usually not. If you have newer coax in the ground, it is probably designed to pass signals up to and beyond 1 GHz. Older cable won't support it though. And the number of amplifier locations would increase on a 750 or 860 system because the spacing has to be less to deal with the attenuation at higher frequencies. More amplifiers equals more noise and distortion to the signal, more devices that can fail which reduces reliability and requires much more power in the network, on and on.
For these reasons, and others, most (the vast majority) of cable operators that are upgrading to 750 or 860 specify some type of fiber architecture with the upgrade. The fiber keeps the signal clean, provides lots of bandwidth, and reduces the "cascade" or number of active devices in the network down to a minimum. That provides a better signal to the home and better network reliability.
I would be very surprised if there isn't some type of fiber going in with an upgrade to those levels. |
