Is upgrading your cable modem from a DOCSIS 3.0 model to a new DOCSIS 3.1 modem worth it? It depends on your current service.
I recently started getting bombarded with a bunch of emails from my ISP (Cox) claiming, "
You're missing out on faster internet!" and "
Your modem is slowing you down!" So I looked into it and decided my 9 year-old Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 modem was getting a bit long in the tooth.
I ordered a new Motorola MB8611 DOCSIS 3.1 modem and installed it yesterday.
But just before installing the new modem, I ran Speedtest with the old modem and got the following results:
Download Mbps: 180.05
Upload Mbps: 9.8
Latency: 8ms
Now with the new modem:
Download Mbps: 296.77
Upload Mbps: 12.75
Latency: 5ms
When I saw that 164.8% improvement in download speeds, I got mad -
at myself for not upgrading earlier. Those were speeds
I was paying for, but not getting because my old modem was indeed, "
slowing me down".
So, was it worth spending $190 on a new modem? Considering I was already paying for that
significantly faster speed, I say a resounding, "YES!"
Oh, BTW - I definitely recommend buying your own network gear (separate modem and router, or integrated "residential gateway" device) rather than renting from your ISP. No doubt, had I been renting that old modem, I would have paid for it several times over. Considering the average cost of modem rental here is $10 - $15/month (depending on device and service agreement), this new one will be paid for in rental fee savings in less than 2 years. Plus, its 100% mine - no backdoors for the ISP to sneak in without my permission. And I am not footing the bill to provide a "hotspot" for a bunch of unknown other users - but that's for a different discussion.
