Docsis 3.1 Emta - why are they only "valid" for comcast?

[BB Gun]

Did a search, didn't find an answer, if there is one, just point me to it.

I just moved out of Comcast's service area and into Wave (now "Astound") cable service area. Paid for their near-gig service which requires docsis 3.1

Plugged in a non-phone docsis 3.1 modem (Arris Surfboard SB8200) and was consistently getting 860+ Mbps down. Happy.

To get voice, Wave plugged in a Hitron EN2251 which says it is DOCSIS 3.1. But plot twist - its max DL speed is 686 Mbps even though its DOCSIS 3.1, and I am fookin' paying for their near Gb service. Now I'm maxxing at about 600 Mbps down.

So I go looking for docsis 3.1 modems with voice, and the few that are out there say they're only "certified" for Xfinity voice. Is there any way around this? Do the "Xfinity voice certified" eMTA docsis 3.1 modems work outside of Xfinity? Comments seem to indicate no.

Do I just end up getting a VOIP phone to plug in? (magic Jack, Ooma seem to be the only home VOIP services left)


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[Grebuloner]

Wave rarely shows up in modem advertising as certified, but they tend to accept anything that fits the standard. While I haven't had to call tech support since they were bought out by RCN so I can't say how helpful they are now, asking them if that modem will work on their network should get you an easy yes or no or a list of better modems (anything they've supplied was hot garbage from the factory) if you explain the sluggishness.

As an aside, nothing you buy will ever get firmware updates. Even if it's on their "buy this" list.

 

[BB Gun]

Understood about firmware....
And Wave's site says "anything that fits the standard (except motorola 8600 has issues) will work" and don't bother giving a list. But its only Modems they talk about.

The local reps at the store said they need to use their own equipment for voice, so I thought they'd be setting up their own VOIP phone on there - but no, they install this modem that you buy for 77 bucks on Ebay who's top speed is neutered.

I keep seeing that the Voice modems "certified" for xfinity ONLY work for xfinity voice - I would not put it past them that they have some firmware idiocy going on.

For example:
https://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-T25-Certified-Internet/dp/B07MGPPNZD/
First question:

There's a lot of ARRIS and "Manufacturer" replies to exactly like this to similar questions.

Only one like this - and the TM3402 isn't sold any more, just the T25:

And a few reviews like this:

Extremely hard to tell what's FUD....

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[SamirD]

Back in the day, they could have a modem just for the voice and a separate one for the Internet. Not sure if they can do that today. And if they can't, you can still force it by getting some basic 5Mb (or whatever it is for them) Internet plan with voice and then a second Internet plan that is billed and activated separately where you can use your modem.

 

[GotNoRice]

non-phone docsis 3.1 modem

modems with voice

Voice modems

Understand that there is no such thing as a "Voice modem". You would be talking about a modem/router combo unit at that point. Any VoIP functionality would have to be on the LAN side of the router, not the WAN side; which obviously requires a router as a modem only provides WAN access. This is unless Comcast is doing something proprietary on their end to provide phone service via a provided Comcast "modem" instead of regular VoIP. 3rd party modems (not router combo units) literally do nothing but provide internet (Usually one WAN IP address). Somewhat of a technicality I suppose but it might help in your search, if you've previously focused your search on something that doesn't actually exist.

Personally, I've used Vonage for 15+ years and it's been a basic yet functional service that is cheap and handles basic phone communication just fine. I have a box that I plug in via ethernet and then plug a regular land-line telephone into that. There is also a phone app so that I can send and receive calls on my cell phone instead if I want, even away from the house.

Or you could just ditch the land-line altogether and simply use your cell phone as your only phone, which a large number of people already do at this point. Internet is too important to compromise on things such as your modem just to get crappy phone service from Comcast when there are so many other alternatives available.

 

[philb2]

Understand that there is no such thing as a "Voice modem". You would be talking about a modem/router combo unit at that point. Any VoIP functionality would have to be on the LAN side of the router, not the WAN side; which obviously requires a router as a modem only provides WAN access. This is unless Comcast is doing something proprietary on their end to provide phone service via a provided Comcast "modem" instead of regular VoIP. 3rd party modems (not router combo units) literally do nothing but provide internet (Usually one WAN IP address). Somewhat of a technicality I suppose but it might help in your search, if you've previously focused your search on something that doesn't actually exist.

I got an Arris modem that is on Comcast's list, plugged in an RJ11 cable for my home phone setup (old but it works and we're Ok with it.) All just worked. Even ported over my ex Baby Bell number, no problem.

Or you could just ditch the land-line altogether and simply use your cell phone as your only phone, which a large number of people already do at this point. Internet is too important to compromise on things such as your modem just to get crappy phone service from Comcast when there are so many other alternatives available.

Since I live in a Comcast service area and have no plans to move. I'm good. This probably applies to other folks in my situation.

 

[zandor]

Understand that there is no such thing as a "Voice modem". You would be talking about a modem/router combo unit at that point.

The Comcast approved voice capable modems have their own IP address for VOIP separate from what the router gets. They also have separate MAC addresses for voice and data. I can see them in the admin interface on my NetGear CM2050V, and it's on a totally different subnet from the IP address my router is using. I'm kind of surprised it's not all IPv6 for the VOIP stuff. Comcast supports IPv6, so why waste IPv4 addresses for something that only has to talk to Comcast? I guess they just haven't gotten around to doing that yet. Voice capable modems don't do routing and look like a modem to a router or computer plugged into them. My router just sends a couple DHCP requests and gets a routable IPv4 & IPv6 address plus an IPv6 prefix.

Unfortunately I have no experience using one of these things on service other than Comcast. If only I had another decent option. At least my Comcast connection is working quite well. ~1420/40 on a 1200/35 plan, signal stats are quite good, once in a while I have an outage when a storm breaks something or whatever but really it's been pretty good. I just want more upload bandwidth.