Cable service providers in the US market have been aggressively deploying DOCSIS 3.1 over the last couple of years. Netgear has been selling DOCSIS 3.1-compatible modems and gateways into the service-provider as well as the retail market. At CES 2020, Netgear is launching a new product to augment their product stack in this segment.
The Nighthawk Wi-Fi 6 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem Router (CAX80) is an integrated device fulfilling modem, router, switch, and wireless access point functions. Priced at $430 and slated for availability in early Q2 20202, this device has a 8-stream Wi-Fi 6 configuration (AX6000-class). It also comes with a 2.5 Gbps LAN port.
The CAX80 has four additional gigabit ports, and two of those are capable of getting link-aggregated too. As Comcast starts to test 2.5 Gbps-capable services, the CAX80 has the ideal specifications to take advantage of it. The Nighthawk app for the gateway is also designed to simplify the onboarding process in a self-install scenario.
Users wanting to avoid a combo-device can currently go in for the CM1100 or CM1200 DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems. They are both multi-gig-ready, but need link aggregation for this purpose. We are looking forward to Netgear updating these models with a 2.5 Gbps port for a simplified installation.