Greg, borrowing from the superhighway analogy, by lane count I simply meant the number of physically discreet paths that could be used. Channels would have been a better word. I should have also pointed out that there are "virtual" techniques that actually could be used to create virtual channel capacity, in the way of coded subchannels on existing 6 MHz downstream, but like I said, this can get very crowded, very fast.
As the 750 MHz and 1 GHz upgrades come to completion, other level channels in this new digital region may free up in the future to allow other ISPs in, but this would be done at the sacrifice of what the MSOs already had slated for those channels (interactive services, HDTV, voice telephony, possibly some educational services, etc.).
This is the upper digital region of the spectrum I'm referring to here. This region was designed a long time ago by CableLAbs and the MSOs, and you can rest assured that when it was designed, AOL was not the primary intended beneficiary.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
