* Jon Schewe <jpschewe at mtu.net> [011230 20:32]: > - How long does it take for the investment to pay off? ie. $10/month for how > many months to make up the cost of the modem. It was ~120 with shipping, so about a year. > - Will the same cable modem still be useful after that much time? Sure. I can't find anyone who claims DOCSIS will go away by then. > - What's to keep AT&T from changing the technology used so that you need to > buy a new cable modem? Lots, they've got lots of headend equipment and deployed equipment, along with CPE equipment that would cost an absurd amount to replace. It took forever for mediaone just to upgrade to a HFC system. Most modems are upgradable to DOCSIS 1.1 for free, via a provider firmware upload that the end user doesn't even have to do anything for. Most of the 'magic' is done in firmware afaik.