Mike a reprint from the YHOO ATHM thred to me. I am not sure of this man's affiliation,or whether what he says is true. But it seems like this could be plausable,I do not know the Dallas/Fort Worth area ll that well.
The HLIT system that TCI is installing system isn't for Dallas, but specifically is for Grand Prairie, which is a suburb of Dallas. That distinction is important. In the technical article which you refer to, the authors state:
"DWDM technology deployment requires consideration of system and market issues as well as technical issues. No two markets are alike. Each has unique requirements that must be addressed prior to deciding on a particular implementation."
Now while the authors are discussing fiber optic tecnnology, their comments about how no two markets are alike is important. The technical difference in markets will have a greater impact in how fast digital cable service can be rolled out than most people realize.
Take for example, Grand Prairie. The community of Grand Prairie poses unique technical challenges not found elsewhere in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Grand Prairie is right next to the community of Cedar Hill, which for those not familiar with DFW, is where all of the broadcasting towers are clustered for all of the media outlets in DFW. Cedar Hill has the highest elevation in Dallas County, and makes a perfect spot for erecting such towers.
One of the unique technical problems TCI faced in Grand Prairie is the signal coming from the towers induces a signal in the coax lines which is stronger that the signal being sent from the cable headends. This created a number of technical problems which TCI had to overcome in it's roll out of digital services there.
Complicating things further for TCI in Dallas is that each of the communities in and around the DFW area have different cable plant installations. This is due to the fact that different companies built out different communities using different cables, headends, etc. So what worked Grand Prairie may not be right for other Dallas suburbs such as Plano or Garland, or even for the city of Dallas.
A TCI technician I spoke with said the suburban communities usually have newer cable plant facilities and will be easier to upgrade to digital than the city of Dallas. Dallas's cable facilities are old, as is the coax strung up all over Dallas. As a result, converting Dallas to digital will cost more and take longer than it's suburbs.
Other urban areas around the US probably have their own set of unique problems. Having to find ways of dealing with each community's unique technical challenges is probably the main reason why we have not, and will not, see @Home and RoadRunner rolled out as fast as we would like.
Tim |
