Welho, the largest cable operator in Finland, said it launched a 110 Mbps consumer data service on Aug. 25, using EuroDOCSIS 3.0 equipment from Cisco.
… Which means that Welho’s service pre-dates that of Liberty Global’s UPC Netherlands, which yesterday claimed that it will be the first provider in Europe to provide consumer data services at transmission rates in excess of 100 Mbps (see “Liberty Global initiates 120 Mbps+ speeds in Europe”).
Welho’s service is available to all 320,000 homes in its cable network in the Helsinki capital region . Beyond the reach of its cable network, the company provides IPTV and data services via DSL infrastructure.
The Finnish operator did not provide specific adoption statistics, but it said that sales of its 110 Mbps broadband service have exceeded its estimates.
Welho’s 110 Mbps connection is priced at 54.90 Euros per month (about $80 at today’s exchange rates). Its claim is that it is the first cable operator in Europe to start commercial deployment of the EuroDOCSIS 3.0 platform in the entire network.
The Finnish provider is using Cisco’s uBR10012 CMTS cable routers and Cisco’s cable modems.
Welho said it has upgraded its network in order to be ready for even higher speeds enabled by EuroDOCSIS 3.0 in the future.
“EuroDOCSIS 3.0 enables us to utilize the wide bandwidth and other technical advantages of cable. As cable technology now allows bandwidths in excess of 100 Mbps, we are looking forward to offering speeds exceeding 200 Mbps within a few years,” said Johan Flykt, president of Welho. "We are very pleased about being able to offer super-fast broadband to our customers at a competitive price, as compared to other technologies.”
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