If 1-2 mbps symmetrical is "the answer," why not use HDSL, which is here and cheap right now? True, for the moment you only get 768 full duplex over one pair, but for residential applications that's plenty for a long time. And the HDSL vendors say they'll have 1.5 mbps pretty soon, i.e. in a year, over a single pair.
HDSL appears to be the solution picked by a number of telcos, i.e. US West Interprise and MFS/Worldcom, to name a couple.
Has anyone mentioned the backbone issues, i.e. what happens when you hook these big pipes up to the Net? Don't we have to wait until we have ubiqutous ATM, or at least frame relay, until any of these things can go mass-market? Seems that's one of the lessons from ISDN--don't think anything is going to be introduced very widely unless and until the infrastructure is ready, which it isnt.
ADSL is very intriguing. It does work now (well, at least CAP does, on a good day with clean pairs) and it will work even better later on. Maybe it ultimately becomes VDSL and is intergrated into DLC's. But in the meantime, isn't it a technology orphan like ISDN circa 1988?
Comments welcome! Please, shoot me down with facts. |
