UPDATE First Pictures of New Virgin Media Cable Router SuperHub v3

Liberty Global, which owns cable operator Virgin Media as well as other ISPs (e.g. Ziggo, Telenet and UPC), has offered up the first look at their new “Connect Box” device (Virgin’s next combined broadband router and cable modem). The name may be changed in the UK to SuperHub v3.

The operator is currently gearing-up to begin doubling their top cable broadband speeds to 300Mbps from next month (here), although strictly speaking their current top-end EuroDOCSIS3.0 capable SuperHub 2AC router (details) should be able to handle this (recent trials have already proven this to be true).

However Virgin Media has also recently been busy inviting customers to a new Hardware Trial and many had speculated that this could be for a future SuperHub 3 router. The answer to this question appears to have arrived as part of the IBC exhibition in Amsterdam (here), which saw Liberty Global unveil a new Connect Box router, including one with Virgin Media’s logo on the front.

At present very little is known about the new device, except that it appears to have 4 x 1000Mbps LAN (one of those may support WAN) and 2 x Telephone ports (possibly for VoIP) on the back, as well as the usual coax connector and an on-off power switch.

On top of that there’s speculation that the device might also be the first router from Virgin Media to add support for DOCSIS 3.1, which is something we didn’t expect to see for another year (commercially). Broadcom also confirmed the commercial availability of DOCSIS 3.1 at IBC and Liberty Global similarly mentioned it on several occasions during the Connect Box’s unveiling.

According to Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s CTO, “DOCSIS 3.1 is making it possible for [us] to deliver enhanced services to consumers later this year” (here). In fairness this comment is very general (more applicable to their other operators, perhaps) and Virgin Media aren’t expected to begin the first UK trials until later this year, while we probably won’t strictly see any truly new DOCSIS 3.1 based services until 2016/17.

In theory DOCSIS 3.1 should be capable of delivering Gigabit class performance, although we rather suspect that Virgin Media would instead follow their usual “double speed” path and upgrade their top packages to be 600Mbps capable (possibly in 18-24 months’ time). In the meantime Virgin’s customers will just have to get use to the oh-so-slow pace of 300Mbps *tongue firmly in cheek*.

As usual we will endeavour to find out more about the Connect Box and update accordingly.

UPDATE

We managed to get the full specs for Virgin Media’s forthcoming SuperHub 3 (here).