Paul , I know from having visited you home page, read your past postings here and there, that you are very knowledgeable in this area and besides, I like the way you present you ideas so I would really like your comments on ADSL vs. fiber.
I note above that you kind of write off fiber, for now, I assume, saying there will only be in 17 million homes by the end of '96. I recently found out the the cable companies are pretty darn busy running fiber to the homes in the Providence, RI area . It would be interesting to know what other cities they are ramping up.
Why I also ask for your input is today I just happened to have talked to an individual , whom without getting into his credentials, lets just say he has lots of them, and I asked what projects he was working on now and , voila, he is right plum in the middle of the development of alot of the stuff that will demand bandwidth, deal with bandwidth (MPEG 2), etc. and then some, to the home. I brought up ADSL, the RBOC vs. the Cable co.s. and my summary of where he was coming from when we were finished talking was : FIBER IS IT. By the time they impliment any of the others, to include ADSL, and have the applications that will really draw the public in, fiber will be there and that is really the only way to go. The stop gaps aren't worth the commitment.
Recently, wasn't it NYNEX that dropped their ADSL studies for fiber.
Does this all come down to the RBOC's and the cable co's building business models for dealing with the problem of providing bandwith in a cost effective way? or could this be a race where the first with fiber wins? Questions like , what does it cost to impliment an interium step in providing bandwith by going with ADSL or ISDN for various geographical regions as your company ramps up to fiber, are they really feasible if fiber is going to be in that area within a certain time frame? Is it feasible to mix and match this stuff, i.e. ADSL here,( rural areas) , fiber there( in the densely populated and high demand areas, cities).
From where I sit it appears to me that the RBOC's vs the Cable Co's is going to be a real horse race. No, perhaps better described as a real battle. Yep, I would really appreciate you perspectives. I am certainly not abit confortable with what I don't know. :-} |
