SG Broadband Community

I currently have an Arris CM900 8x4 rental modem, on a 60 megabit plan. Every time the modem is reset, or there's a power outage, I get a different set of channels. They run from 555 MHz to 645 MHz. Sometimes, it's 1-8, sometimes 9-16, and the rest of the time they're scattered.

I was looking at getting an Arris SB6183, to save on the rental fee. I asked my provider if it was approved, and he said it was. I asked if it would bond all 16 downstream channels that I've seen on my modem, and he said it wouldn't, that it would only bond 8. Is that so? Why just 8? And which 8? Random, like before?

On the upstream, even though the modem shows 4 available slots, it's always the same 2 channels that are bonded. So, I would expect to see 2 open, unused slots on the SB6183, but I can't understand why, even if there are 16 available, that it would only bond 8. Any truth to this? Because if so, I guess it doesn't make sense to spend the extra for a 16x4...

**EDIT**

What I'm referring to as "available channels" are actually the available frequencies. On my modem, it has slots for downstream 1-8, but the 16 available frequencies in those slots aren't labeled as channels. And I'm sure all the people here already knew what I meant, but I had to clarify.

The modem is doing some type of auto-negotiation to figure out clean channels to use. The fact that the modem is capable of using many channels, and bonding 16, doesn't mean the ISP will use them all, they are not necessary for sub-gigabit speeds. DOCSIS 3.1 is capable of up to 10 Gbit/s downstream and 1 Gbit/s upstream..

Each channel is capable of ~40 Mbit/s. The number of bonded channels will depend on the ISP, and may possibly vary with the speed tier? I am not sure how many bonded channels Comcast uses in all markets and for all speed tiers... In my particular area it seems to be using up to 8 downstream, if supported by the modem.

I have TDS (Baja), and the tech said pretty much the same thing, that I'd need a bigger tier for 16 channels.

I was curious because I had read a fairly recent post from someone who referred to the SB6183, and who had a 15/1 Mbit/s plan, and who's provider has 32 available channels, and the modem was bonding 16 various channels.

I don't need all the speed I have as it is, as I'm still using a WRT54G v3 & WRT54GS v7 (stacked), and my PS Vue service runs perfectly.

It's more of an order thing, I suppose. If there's 16 available channels that can be bonded with a 16 channel modem, I'd like that, even though it's not needed or rational. And with that said, if the service then made 32 channels available, I'd probably obsess over them...

Thanks, Phillip.

No problem Eddie, yeah, it seems to depend on the speed tier an the ISP. I wouldn't obsess over it, since you do have them available - your modem just uses the 8 best at the moment, which is capable of a bit over 300 Mbits/s.