Cable distribution of channels is completely different from the U-Verse example. Cable uses a certain band of frequencies for channels, each HD channel requiri

Cable distribution of channels is completely different from the U-Verse example. Cable uses a certain band of frequencies for channels, each HD channel requiring a larger band. The Internet access they provide is delivered the same way, but with a smaller band for upstream. The bands for Internet service are shared by all customers on the segment, with rate limiting at the maximum rate you're paying for. For cable carriers, there is no "profiling" ability to prefer one over the other, they each have separate channels. U-Verse and similar services (like the Verizon fiber solution) use a multi-homed router on your premise with one network for TV, one for VoIP and one for Internet. They are all 3 IP based networks and travel over the same copper, meaning they share the same bandwidth, but only one of them is actually connected to the Internet. For those services, you only receive the channels over the copper that your local router has requested the multicast streams for, allowing for a much more efficient use of the bandwidth but providing the possibility for services to interfere with each other.