Question ISP plan vs. Cable Modem capacity

[JimRusso]

Can someone please help me understand why someone would ever have a ISP plan greater than 1 Gbps when the Cable Modem outputs are only 1 Gbps? This is for a standard household usage, not a business, in which I am limited to using a port rated at 1 Gbps to feed a router from the modem. If the output port is 1 Gbps, why would having a plan greater than 1 Gbps make sense? Thanks.

 

[bignastyid]

DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems max at 10Gbps.

 

[bill001g]

There are cable modem with faster than 1gbit ports and as mentioned above the raw network speed can be 10gbit.

Now if you can actually use 1gbit network and if it is worth the added cost is a different question.

 

[gggplaya]

The Motorola MB8611 has a built in 2.5Gbe port. You need to upgrade your modem to get your full ISP speed. The comcast 1gb plan is 1200mbps and most people can't find the justification to spend $190 for an updated modem for an extra 200mbps when 1000mbps is plenty fast for most people.

Also keep in mind that Comcast and most ISP's rent out ALL-IN-One Modem/Router combo units. So even if they have only gigabit ethernet ports, 1 person can be doing a game download at the full 1gbps, but another could be using wifi to take up the other 200mbps. So it is possible to use the full plan speed with multiple people in the house.

The comcast XB7 and XB8 have 4 ethernet ports. The port with a red-orange line on it is supposed to be 2.5gbe.

 

[USAFRet]

why someone would ever have a ISP plan greater than 1 Gbps

Marketing.
Unless you have a LOT of simultaneous users in your household, even 1gigabit is overkill.

But if you listen to all the ads, you NEED that gigabit (or greater) speed.
No, you don't.

Equipment to go over that is readily available, but I posit that most houses do not need more than 100/100.