COMCAST CEO PEDDLES NEXT-GEN MODEM (BLAZING FAST)

Faster than a speeding ... Ah, you know the deal

The Associated Press reports that Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled industry audiences Tuesday when he unveiled a new technology that enables a data download speed of 150 megabits per second (roughly 25 times faster than standard cable modems.)

The good news? The cost that would support the technology, called "channel bonding," is "not that dissimilar to modems today," he said in his demonstration at The Cable Show in Las Vegas. Furthermore, it could be available in less than a couple years.

While new invention is always the norm, this new cable technology is crucial because Comcast and the rest of the cable industry will soon compete with FiOS, a peppy new offering of fiber-optic TV and Internet service via Verizon. The top speed currently available through FiOS is 50 megabits per second, but the network is already capable of providing 100 Mbps. What's more, the fiber lines offer nearly unlimited potential.

At the presentation, ARRIS Group Inc. chief executive Robert Stanzione downloaded the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 and Merriam-Webster's visual dictionary in just under four minutes. It would have taken a standard cable modem three hours and 12 minutes.

"If you look at what just happened, 55 million words, 100,000 articles, more than 22,000 pictures, maps and more than 400 video clips," Roberts said. "The same download on dial-up would have taken two weeks."

This new technology, called DOCSIS 3.0, was developed by the cable industry's research arm, Cable Television Laboratories. It bonds together four cable lines and is capable of allowing much more capacity. The lab said it expected manufacturers to begin submitting modems for certification under the standard by the end of the year.