Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Having had broadband for a while...

Author:David Brown
Posted:3/2/1999; 11:04:21 AM
Topic:Snappy!
Msg #:3471 (In response to 3460)
Prev/Next:3470 / 3472

After all, you can always get a faster computer and a faster net connection. (If history and Dr. Moore are good predictors of the future.)

There's the rub. As someone else has already mentioned, it's FAR easier to get a faster computer than it is to get a faster net connection, at least for individuals.

Once we got up to 56K modems, we hit the limit on the existing infrastructure (actually, that happened at 33.6K, 56K takes advantage of a nifty technical trick, is asymmetric, and doesn't work everywhere). To go any faster, somebody needs to upgrade the infrastructure. Somebody needs to replace the wires that have been fine for a few decades.

Cable modems only benefit from the final hop from a concentrator to the home. After that, the data hops to fiber, and somebody had to run it. And that somebody had to work with the local government or some other organization to get permission to use the poles or the trenches that already existed so that they can lay that new infrastructure.

The technical problems are easy, and are surmountable. But the real problem is political.

TCI dropped the ball in Seattle. I have my cable modem, but I got mine because I was lucky enough to live in the area in which TCI decided to test. To get their monopoly, TCI promised the City of Seattle (and other surrounding cities and counties) that they would roll out digital cable and cable modems to everyone by a certain date. Well, like many technical endeavors that we've ALL been a part of, they slipped the schedule. A lot.

So now the city council is up in arms, talking about kicking out TCI and @Home, and letting other people run it, without really understanding the technical issues involved (e.g. @Home has done a really good job figuring out how to handle broadband without killing the outside world, mainly by building a high speed secondary network, and a HUGE cache for the popular broadband video stuff).

At any rate, it is a far more complicated process to get a higher speed connection than it is to go down to the store and buy the latest fastest offering from Compaq or IBM or whatever.

And that's what needs to be fixed.

dave

p.s. and what about cost? My cable modem only costs $40/mo...

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