Cable is having problems once many, many users in your neighborhood signs up. DSL people are running a series of commercials to showcase this, which ATHM has threatened to sue over.
You do realize that DSL is a shared medium. All DSL lines converge at a node located at the central office (CO). The lines are connected into individual modems, and at this point, the signals are multiplexed. These modems/multiplexors are referred to as Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexors (DSLAM).
Some COs have as many as ten thousand phone lines converging. Many lines in - one line out. Each line feeds into a DSLAM and most of these DSLAMs are installed into standard 19" rack slots that house anywhere from 4 to 10 ports per slot. DSL suffers from both physical and bandwidth constraints. Because of the star topology of the telephone last mile network, it will be up to the RBOCs to create new COs to reduce the congestion. Do you really think the RBOCs will do this, just so Flashcom can make $79.95 a month? I doubt it.
I have to wonder why some fool will pay $79.95 a month for a quarter of the bandwidth of a cable data service connection, which cost 39.95 a month. Consider, the MSOs will be providing 5 services via the HFC networks: Broadcast TV, Interactive TV, Telephone, Data Services, and Video on Demand. Currently, data services use approximately 6 MHz of the 750 to 1 GHz bandwidth of the HFC network. Do you really think that puny twisted pair telephone line can compete with that?
So you think the cable modem will slow huh? The cost of splitting a node in the HFC topology is around $1500 dollars. Additionally, other 6 MHz channels can be allocated to data services. It really is no big deal. In Calgary (a city of approx 850,000 people), 50% of all residential Internet users use @HOME. There have been no reported complaints about slowing speeds.
Those DSL ads you refer to, are airing only in areas where the MSOs are aggressively marketing the @home service. They are being used as a defensive, rearguard, action to prevent the loss of market share.
The RBOCs know their only hope of competing with the HFC networks is to begin laying fiber into the neighborhoods. Therefore, they will not waste resources on an idea (DSL) whose time came and went 4 years ago - except where they must. |
