Megabyte schmegabite.
July 20, 2001
By TAMARA CHUANG
The Orange County Register
Competisys Corp. in Irvine has taken high-speed access up a notch to offer communications speeds of 1 gigabit into the home. That's about 1,000 times faster than a cable modem.
The fledging company - apparently the first to offer such speeds to homes - wired a new subdivision 35 miles north of San Francisco with gigabit Ethernet, a network technology that can transfer voice, video and Internet data at speeds of 1 billion bits per second. Residents will be able to access TV, telephone and Internet service from one pipe going into their homes. The first model home opens Monday in the town of American Canyon, population 9,700.
"Basically, you get a phone, you get TV and you get Internet. But the Internet is faster" than a cable modem or digital-subscriber line service, said Lance Shoemaker, Competisys' vice president of network solutions. "And it's guaranteed bandwidth. It's dedicated to the home."
Cable-modem users, in comparison, share the big pipe with next-door neighbors, so speeds can slow if the whole block is online. Gigabit Ethernet ensures that customers get the speeds they're promised.
Competisys will deliver the services over a fiber-optic network instead of telephone wires and cable lines. Fast Ethernet, the standard used in many corporate office networks, could until recently only deliver data at speeds of up to 100 million bits per second, or 100 megabits.
Since today's computers aren't capable of accepting 1 gigabit Internet transmissions, Competisys will offer Internet speeds of 1 to 6 Mb, which can be increased as technology allows. Video delivery, on the other hand, will utilize the bulk of the gigabit pipe's capacity.
Competisys, which employs 18, believes some parts of America are ready for the gigabit, especially because it's priced slightly less than the competing cable packages. For $115 a month, residents get 1 Mb Internet, a video package similar to cable TV's top package, video-on-demand choices like those offered by hotels and telephone service. Customers can adjust services by logging onto their online accounts. Competisys was founded and primarily funded by William Prentice in 1997. It aims to provide gas, electricity, TV, phone and Internet to residential and business communities. While the company has earned revenue from energy consulting, the American Canyon subdivision is Competisys' first installation. The 140-unit subdivision is being built by Schuler Homes in Hawaii. Most homes are priced in the low- to mid-$300,000s.
"I'd say (Competisys) is ahead of its time," said Lauri Vickers, a senior analyst of data and voice networking for Cahners InStat, a market research firm. Vickers said she was not familiar with any other companies offering the same service.
ocregister.com
From 1000x faster than a cable modem, the speed dropped to 1/4 of what I'm getting today with @Home.
All in just 6 paragraphs.
Note to KiloBites... Typical Orange County and all very George Bushian, don't you think? |
