Arris announced today that its Touchstone 702G embedded multimedia terminal adapter (E-MTA) was certified PacketCable 1.5-compliant in CableLabs’ certification Wave 59.

Arris’ 702G E-MTA has also been certified for DOCSIS 3.0. While cable operators are expected to slowly refresh the new DOCSIS 3.0 modems and E-MTAs into customers’ homes, it makes sense that they would use the E-MTA devices for customers who have both voice and video services from their cable providers.

"The ability to integrate channel bonding and IPv6 into a voice-enabled PacketCable MTA CPE device is a milestone for Arris and the industry and further demonstrates the technological innovation that has become synonymous with the Arris Touchstone brand,” said Bruce McClelland, president of Arris’ broadband communications systems.

The Touchstone 702G supports up to four bonded channels in both the upstream and downstream directions, allowing operators to offer up to 120 Mbps upstream and 160 Mbps downstream high-speed data services. Arris said it will use the 702G to demonstrate symmetrical channel bonding at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia later this month. The 702G also supports two lines of PacketCable-compliant, carrier-grade VoIP.

DOCSIS 3.0 can achieve the increased downstream broadband speeds by bonding 6 MHz – or in the case of Europe and some parts of Asia and Latin America, 8 MHz – channels together. DOCSIS upstream channel bonding, which will be deployed after downstream channel bonding, can provide up to 120 Mbps of shared throughput for cable operators.

Earlier this year, Videotron and Comcast became the first large North American MSOs to deploy pre-DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding modems for increased downstream speeds. It’s anticipated that cable operators will deploy the faster speeds in areas where they face competition from Verizon’s FiOS service.

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