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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.ysu.edu!news.cps.udayton.edu!news.engr.udayton.edu!blackbird.afit.af.mil!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!uunet!inXS.uu.net!csnews!boulder!coopnews.coop.net!hops.entertain.com!usenet From: dwatson@abwam.com (Darryl Watson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: [Q] ISP :new to ISDN : Pointers? Date: 27 Jun 1996 15:59:48 GMT Organization: ABWAM, Inc. Lines: 93 Message-ID: <4qub5k$7nf@hops.entertain.com> References: <4q5815$h7l@news.corpcomm.net> <Pine.3.91.960618005848.5013D-100000@fog.cs.odu.edu> <4q6ijt$rsv@hops.entertain.com> <31C9C03C.22722C64@lambert <4qqh9s$ec@anorak.coverform.lan> NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.144.250.82 X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.92.5 In article <4qqh9s$ec@anorak.coverform.lan>, brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk (Brian Somers) says: > >Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote: > >: TCI, are you listening? I know you are going 10Mbit/S via >: cable modem in Phoenix in late 1996/early 1997. Come to >: Tucson, and you can have me and most of my friends in the >: area. It's unlikely that ISDN will be dumped in favor of >: FR, or the prices dropped to anywhere near the prices range >: you are charging for @HOME ( http://www.athome.com ) >: service... act now and solidify your market. > >Do you know how much frame relay costs ? Is it practical from an >end-user point of view ? How does it compare with ADSL (if you >don't mind the crappy transmit bandwith). How much is ADSL in the >states ? ADSL is great for home use, if you can get it. That's a big IF in the States. > >Pointers would be greatfully appreciated. > >Unfortunately, England is a bit backwards in this respect. ISDN >costs £400 (~$600) for installation and one of the biggest cable >companies (Videotron) still thinks that "on-demand video" (the same >technology as ADSL?) is a great _new_ idea. Frame relay is just >not advertised - as if the technology was never invented. > >-- >Brian <brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> >Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour.... It is a shame that ISDN is as costly as you say it is in England. <rant> The World is ready for high bandwidth digital communications. Who will step in to supply that rapidly rising demand? Cable companies with 10mbit/sec modems? Not! They can't even get my cable TV order right, and they've been in the business for 20 years! How are they going to handle, say, 100,000 subscribers who want to surf the net at 10mbit/s, all at the same time? Will any of those customers even see close to that bandwidth when they are competing with each other for access to the internet through the same provider? I don't think so. And asymetric uploads are inadequate for businesses. How about phone companies? They've got coppper to just about any consumer who wants it, except in places like India, where there just isn't an infrastructure that can handle stringing all that wire. The solutions like ADSL (which is asymetric, and VERY distance-limited) is not, by and large, available to a significant proportion of the population. ISDN? It is becoming increasingly available, but still isn't available to any Joe Blow or Josephine Blow who wants it. ISDN is a good standard which almost everyone agrees on, but the phone companies don't want to sell it, because it cuts heavily into their frame relay profit centers. So the phone companies (who are much better suited to handling the data service business than any cable company will ever be) will squat on the 'public networks' as long as possible, without providing a reasonable solution to the scream for greater bandwidth, and will effectively block anyone else from resolving the 'last mile' problem. How about wireless solutions? Supposedly, there are plans by various corporations to loft satelites which can serve as many as 500,000 T1s to customers anywhere on the planet. The two questions that come to my mind are: when? In 2001? What about NOW? And the other question is, by the time these wireless solutions are implemented, won't the actual demand for services greatly exceed the capacity of such satelites? My guess is that demand is, and will, greatly exceed supply for YEARS to come. Other soutions? I can't speculate, as I haven't heard of any viable ones yet. An an ISP, my single greatest headache is the phone company. No matter where I turn, they are in the way, and ain't moving. I yearn for a high bandwidth digital solution which uses plain copper wire, and which will not require the phone company to do other than provide POTS service. If such a solution would come along, they would no longer be able to slow down the development of digital communications in this, or any other country. In other words, I need to be able to deliver at least T1 bandwidth over 24 gauge copper wire reliably to a distance of 30 miles or less. Anyone, if you hear of a real product which can do that, let me know, please!!! I think that in the next 5 years, the single most viable higher-bandwidth solution is going to be ISDN, at least, in the US. Unless, of course, someone comes along with a better solution that has a short implementation schedule. </rant>