My 80+ YO mom, who has basic Mediacom Internet and TV service, got a message from Mediacom that she needs to upgrade her modem or she will "lose Internet service". I have never heard of an ISP that obsoleted the old modems when increasing network speed, you can generally keep the slower service if that's what you want. But I am 1000 miles away so it is hard to tell what Mediacom is up to.
Her current setup has only a bare Mediacom modem that runs her own Netgear 1900AC router and OOMA VOIP box that I set up for her a couple years ago. For TV she merely has the cable plugged into the QAM tuner in her Samsung TV... no Mediacom TV box.
Mediacom has sent her a new box, a Technicolor-tc8305c, that appears to be an all in one modem/router, TV/VoIP box. We don't want or need that. So what is the internal modem spec? DOCSIS 3 I presume? Or is there something more proprietary? Can I just connect up a DOCSIS 3 modem (I have a spare) and be done with it? Or is there more to this like is Mediacom encrypting the TV signal to negate her direct cable connection for TV service, like Comcast did to us here about 6 years ago?
It's always something. What a PITA.
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