New Email. Is this D4 upgrades?

boogieman0981 · 2025-07-22T12:32:15+00:00

Just got this this morning. We’re already on mid-split and the node is ¼ mile from my apartment. This is just outside Hartford, CT.

Test-User

cypherstream Correct. My area was one of the first outside of Atlanta to get mid-split and the 2Gbps download speeds. That was turned on in February 2023. Unfortunately I don’t recall when they actually upgraded the hardware to mid-split.

Thank you for the detailed info as well!

bigcoda

Test-User Grabbed a few more pics of the equipment. The large-ish white box (no clue on the model) is at the beginning of the main road. Then there are a few of these FDX devices, until it transitions to underground for my neighborhood.

My neighborhood has been on Mid-Split, since about December 2023. Since everything is under ground in my neighborhood I can’t see what equipment we have. But there’s a pole about a mile away, were the equipment is aerial. The first node in my first picture, looks a lot like the node in your first picture. Then they turned around and replaced the node again about one year later, with the one in my second picture. I haven’t seen any of those new FDX amps around my area, like the ones you posted above.

hex0101

bigcoda They also use the same nodes in my area that were in your 1st picture. However, all of the addresses served off of them only have sub-split available. The Harmonic CableOS nodes with the Pebble-1 RPD’s seem to be Comcast’s favorite for mid-split setups in my area.

cypherstream

bigcoda even though Harmonic makes an RPD for the now EOL Cisco GS7000 nodes in your first picture, I’ve only ever seen Comcast cut them out and replace the whole thing with a Harmonic or Arris OM6000.

Same goes for amps…. Many amps have mid split drop in modules available, but despite that Comcast cuts the whole thing out and installs the Commscope MB-120 and BLE-120.

SECV threw mid split mods like remanufactured Phillips Broadband Networks and Arris FlexMax 601 mods in existing Magnavox amplifiers. It was quicker that cutting and redoing the heat shrink, etc…. Probably cheaper too. Now we’ve been running that gear since about 2021 and they are working on FTTH.

hex0101

cypherstream oh lol, those are indeed GS7000’s. The color of the housing threw me off. I have seen plenty of GS7000’s that had gray housings.

cypherstream

hex0101 when they go fiber there’s really nothing to see. Here’s a pic at a stop light showing Comcast coax on top, then the next thing is probably crown castle, then SECV coax (there is a Magnavox amp with mid split guts), and then SECV FTTH fiber coiled up waiting for the next phase of construction. At the very bottom is the local telco, Windstream. Their fiber tap is mounted right on the pole.

Test-User

Grabbed some better pics of the FDX amps in my hood.

hex0101

Test-User Hmm, I need to go take a look at the one in my neighborhood more closely.

cypherstream

hex0101 they share the same base so the difference would be that FDX lid is much larger with monster heat sink fins on it.

Test-User

Grabbed a much better pic of my Node as well.

cypherstream

Test-User Ah they put an FDX sticker on the side!

Interestingly its still blue label 24V. SECV here uses orange label 34V OM6000 nodes.

In Willow Grove, PA where they have FDX, they are also using the OM6000 node. No amps though. N+0.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Harmonic with FDX yet, but we’d not know unless there was some kind of indicator like that.

Test-User

cypherstream granted, FDX is not actually active for my ‘hood just yet, so that may be an upcoming upgrade.

cypherstream

Test-User I suppose an FDX node and emulate a mid-split band plan just fine. That makes me wonder if all the Comcast HFC expansions going on have FDX ready nodes, or if they really are just that shortsighted. Another Comcast HFC expansion green lit around Easton PA in Palmer township. History tells us all Pennsylvania based Comcast systems are mid split, but here is their chance to get ahead of it.

hex0101

cypherstream FDX amps do indeed have a mid-split mode. No need to utilize the FDX capabilities right away after installation if you do not want to.

cypherstream

hex0101 then there certainly could be many more FDX nodes in the field that we know about. In my area, Comcast was still installing Harmonic nodes as recent as 2024. That would seem ass backwards to install an obsolete product that you have to revisit so soon.

meerkathalon

cypherstream Both neighborhoods/locations I identified around here with FDX amps have Harmonic nodes. That said, X-class doesn’t show as available yet, so it’s possible they could swap it out. I doubt it though, since cabletechs have confirmed that they’ve been installing FDX RPDs in Harmonics.

The second spot where I noticed the new amps is in such a bizarre location too being a country road leading into town, very sparsely populated. Both locations already had midsplit, so that tempers my expectations of getting upgraded this year. I would love to know how Comcast chooses where and when to do these sorts of things

hex0101

meerkathalon That said, X-class doesn’t show as available yet,

Mid-split also takes time to be switched on (green-lit) after the plant hardware is upgraded. (I have seen this take months on some nodes, whereas others get mid-split activation within days). There is no doubt that FDX will also follow the same procedure.

I have seen people on Reddit try to get mid-split upload speeds on their modem hours after the techs just completed swapping out all of the hardware in the neighborhood and balancing the amplifiers. Not happening just yet, need to wait for the mid-split activation/2G speed tier activation on the backend.

cypherstream

hex0101 They installed new stuff here (brand new build) and they ran it sub split from November 2023 to April 2024, then they turned on mid-split. Guess they had to test.

I don’t even count Nov-Dec because the system ran on those portable Alpha Gen generators until Met-Ed could tie in to the power supplies.

hex0101

cypherstream Oh I thought it was installed in 2022, N+2 plant.

cypherstream

hex0101 Im trying to remember I think digging in 2022. Let me see the dates on some of my Google photos.

But our development was the very first to be expanded into. I know it took throughout until 2024 to get the rest of Birdsboro and Douglassville PA done as well as the south portion of our township and into some of the rural parts.

EDIT:
Yup my photo timeline shows things were pretty heavy in August 2022 with deployment of conduits, pedestals, etc..

Actives installed in October 2022.

Temp powered around Thanksgiving 2022.

I think orders began sometime December 2022, and then Mid split speeds avialable sometime in Mid April 2023.

Additional developments (ug) was worked on throughout 2023 and then into 2024 ending with aerial deployments throughout 2023-2024.

So soon they’ll have to go back and redo it all for FDX. What a waste of labor.

Press releases coming out still to this day about new Comcast expansions, as recent as last week such as Palmer Township PA - Near Easton PA in the Lehigh Valley - to compete with Service Electric and Astound Broadband (formerly RCN).

They are on track to wire up their home state it seems.

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