[SOLVED] Is DOCSIS modem with more channels worth it?

[pwire]

If I'm only interested in upload speed and my cable provider's plan offers a maximum upload speed of 35Mbps, is there any reason why I'd need a pricier 16x8 modem over a cheaper 8x4 modem?

Background:
My cable company is advertising a maximum upload speed of 35 Mbps. My understanding is DOCSIS modems have an upload speed of ~25Mbps per channel. Is there any reason why I'd need to get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem with more than 4 upload channels (4x25 = 100Mbps compared to the cable company limit of 35Mbps)? In other words, I'm looking at a modem that's listed as 8x4, and if I'm only interested in upload speed, is there any reason I'd need the pricier 16x8 modem? Please note I understand the 16 channels would give twice the download speed, but I'm only concerned with upload speed.

 

[SamirD]

It's all about what modem your cable company supports. I'd just get the lowest supported model that handles the upload you want.

 

[pwire]

Cox supports the 8x4 modem I'm looking at, but my question is whether my understanding is correct that:
a.) 8x4 = approx. 100Mbps upload

b.) with the plan limited to 35Mbps max upload, getting a faster modem than 8x4 won't be beneficial

 

[SamirD]

My experience is that the number of channels have nothing to do with it. I remember having a 25x5 plan on my cisco dpc2100 modem and originally it wasn't getting full speeds for which the isp said I needed to upgrade to a newer motorola docsis modem that had more upload channel bonding. Since they were all the isps modems, I swapped them and nothing improved. I liked the us and ds activity lights on the cisco so I went and swapped again. After a month the 25x5 started to magically work as it should. I had 3x of these modems connected to a cisco rv016 for 75x15 total back in the mid-2000s. I used the upload constantly uploading over 2GB a week.

 

[bill001g]

Buy the minimum modem the ISP says will work on their plan. Many times they will require better modems than technically should be required. So they might use 16 channels to support all customers but use some other form of limitation between plans.
You are correct though adding more channels makes no difference if your rate is limited. So as long as the ISP says a 8x4 modem will work on your plan in the area you live you can buy that. Note just because the box says it is compatible with some ISP does not mean the ISP will allow it where you live. Because ISP have acquired other ISP and some areas have been upgraded to newer equipment the answer depends on exactly where you live.

The modem I have supports 8 upload channels and the ISP only uses 4.

 

[gggplaya]

It really depends on the ISP and how many channels they use for Upload.

A modem being capable of certain speeds doesn't matter as much as how the ISP configures the modem. They upload profiles for each speed plan into the modem from their office and depending on how that profile is configured is how many channels it uses. It may use 4 or 8 channels for upload, who knows until you get the plan and log into the modem to see.