High-speed access roadblocks
Limits on the connection between the ISP and the Internet backbone restrict the promise of broadband
Dec. 2 — @Home Network has told its users they can only view broadcast-quality video clips that are less than 10 minutes long, because of limitations to its cable-modem-based Internet access service. Subscribers to other high-speed connection technologies will inevitably face the same limitations, according to industry experts.
It's a matter of the number of users that can be supported on the ISP's regional gateway to the Internet — an inescapable factor in the way the Internet is constructed.
@HOME OPERATES AN INTERNET access service based on cable-television lines, which transmit data from the Net more than 100 times faster than the standard telephone-based modem connection. Such high-speed connections make applications such as downloading audio-video clips not only possible, but routine.
NOT SO FAST
The ISP doesn't see it quite that way, however, and recently told its users that it would not allow the download of video clips longer than 10 minutes. The ban applies only to broadcast-quality video, which runs at 30 frames per second and is presently rare on the Internet. (There are no limits for lower-quality video.)
The limitation was also outlined in the company's most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM
Cable-modem critics charge that such constraints are a weakness built into the cable architecture. But some industry analysts said other high-speed access systems could be headed for the same ceiling. “This whole argument that is generally accepted, is that because [cable] uses a shared connection, as more and more users get online, performance will degrade,” said analyst Jim Wahl with Yankee Group. “But that has nothing to do with it.”
He explained that it's simply a matter of the number of users that can be supported on the ISP's regional gateway to the Internet — an inescapable factor in the way the Internet is constructed.
BOTTLENECK
In other words, there is a bottleneck, but it occurs where the ISP connects to the Internet backbone, not where cable-modem users connect to the ISP, according to Wahl.
“At the connection to the backbone, they maybe have a T3 connection for the region's subscribers,” said Wahl. “Obviously if they're handling 500,000 homes on that connection ... there's going to be a limitation.”
That means users of other high-speed Internet access technologies, such as DSL, which uses ordinary telephone lines, will ultimately face the same constraints. Even the standard telephone network faces the same limitations, according to analyst Lisa Pelgrim of Dataquest.
THE LINE IS BUSY
“Not everyone can make a telephone call, either, on an analog phone,” Pelgrim said. “It doesn't happen, but if everyone tried it, it wouldn't work. We expect to see the same types of patterns with high-speed access.”
@Home is having to face the issue earlier only because it is growing so quickly, Wahl suggested.
A new survey by Kinetic Strategies Inc. found @Home will have more than 300,000 users by the end of 1998. A year ago, the entire cable-access industry had only about 100,000 users.
Many analysts say cable networks are more vulnerable than DSL to local network congestion, arguing cable's advantage is its lower price.
DSL A LITTLE BETTER
“It appears from trials that cable implementations run into capacity problems before DSL does,” said Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group. But he said in order to achieve its advantage, companies offering DSL have to make larger investments in network technology, meaning higher prices for users. The good news is that the bandwidth issue won't be much of a constraint for users in the near term.
@Home believes that “multiple users to access video on demand at TV quality over a single channel is nowhere near reality in the next five years,” according to a company statement. And analysts agree.
Current high-speed technology is “designed to apply to current Internet use,” said analyst Pelgrim. “It's more than what you need for current Internet usage patterns. But when needs of the users change, the architecture will have to change.... What it comes down to is that all technologies will eventually be obsolete.”
WORK-AROUND
High-speed providers will also be able to get around the bottlenecks by a number of methods, including moving high-bandwidth content off the Internet and closer to the users.
Analysts noted that one strategy, pursued by @Home and others, is to place content such as high-quality video and games at a local network level, so that Internet congestion never comes into the picture. @Home is continuing to develop high-bandwidth content — including video — for its users. Earlier this month, for example, the company announced a content-development partnership with MTV that will let users access some music-videos on demand.
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