xDSL Vs. Cable Modems
August 4, 1998
INFORMATIONWEEK via NewsEdge Corporation :
Cable modems vs. xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
technology has been the subject of debate lately. Allow
me to add my two cents.
At first glance, xDSL appears to be the front-runner.
After all, it can use the phone wire that's already in place
in almost every home and business. Cable modems
require a television cable system, which is also in a lot of
homes and businesses but doesn't have nearly the same
penetration as basic telephone service. One important
advantage that cable modem providers do have is a
captive audience. All cable modem subscribers go
through the same machine room in their local area to get
Internet access. <P>In my home turf of Austin, Texas,
Time Warner runs the cable system and its RoadRunner
cable modem service will go online this fall. What's the
first thing many subscribers to that service will see after
they connect to the Internet? The Time Warner home
page. Of course, that's just the default home page and it's
easily defeated. What's more important is that Time
Warner owns the machine room that all cable subscribers
connect to for Internet access. When Time Warner, or a
third party, develops applications to take advantage of
that bandwidth, it will be able to deploy those
applications more effectively for their cable modem
subscribers than an outside provider.
America Online did a good job of leveraging its virtual
community in the early '90's. The company had a captive
audience and used it wisely. Similarly, when the
Netscape browser was deployed, the first thing most
users would see was Netscape's home page. All those
eyes gave Netscape the clout to offer extended content
and promote its products aggressively.
In contrast to cable modem service, xDSL's flexibility and
multivendor support is making it look like a better choice
for IT departments that want to hook up telecommuters
and home offices, as well as for extranet applications.
Any Internet service provider will be able to resell xDSL
connections, and those connections are open to some
competition due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The competitive multivendor environment, coupled with
the G.lite standard, which is expected to arrive by year's
end, should lead to a brisk commodity market for xDSL
equipment and make it a particularly attractive and
low-cost pipe.
But while new services are sure to be spawned by all that
bandwidth, xDSL providers won't be able to depend on
the guaranteed captive audience of their cable modem
counterparts.
Jason Levitt can be reached at jlevitt@cmp.com
You can read his Internet Zone column on
InformationWeek Online at
techweb.cmp.com/iw/author/internet.htm.
Copyright - 1998 CMP Media Inc.
<<INFORMATIONWEEK -- 08-03-98, p. PG60>>
|
