>The other thing that may give a boost is that the FCC is thinking about revising those silly 56k limits and upping it to 64k.
Shane, I could be wrong about this, but I believe the V.90 uses robbed bit signaling, thus limiting it to 56k regardless of FCC restrictions, which limit the signal (power) output on the server side, not the number of bits used.
As far as cable goes, it will ultimately be passed by DSL for a number of reasons:
1) Cable is shared bandwidth - the more people who use a strand, the less bandwidth there is to go around. In the case of DSL, everyone has their own pair to the CO, ths a greater level of security and no sharing of bandwidth.
2) Cable is unidirectional. The uplink is typically a traditional phone pair, thus limiting upload speeds to 33.6kbs. DSL is bidirectional over the same pair, with much greater bandwidths in both directions, depending on the flavor of DSL used.
3. Infrastructure. There is far, far more copper in place than cable. Once the politics are out of the way it will take off like a rocket.
4. Reliability. Cable companies are technically incompetent. The telcos, on the other hand, know how to aggregate and distribute data. When is the last time your phones went out? Practically never for most people. How about your cable? It's out of service frequently for most people. As we become more and more reliant on our data link, the poor service level provided by traditional cable simple will not be tolerated by the masses, IMO.
Lastly, in my opinion, 56k modems will have a solid market for at least another 3-5 years. Whether Zoom or anyone else will make money selling them is another matter. |
