Dear Ryno,
I finally found a simple explanation on all this.
AVAILABILITY???
ISDN -- Metropolitan areas -- line limit of 18,000 cable feet from the nearest switching station
SATELLITE -- Anywhere that has an unobstructed view to the south
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) -- 12,000-18,000 cable feet from the phone company switch, plus new switches
Cable -- very limited metropolitan areas
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DOWNLOAD SPEEDS (per second)???
ISDN -- 128K
SATELLITE -- 400K (some complaints about system getting bogged down during peak times, plus some lag, so no good for interactive games or Telnet)
ADSL -- up to 1500K, but costs seem to be prohibitive at this speed -- for comparative purposes, say 256-512K
CABLE -- 1.5 - 4 Mb! (you lucky stiffs) -- Networks must keep upgrading as subscriber base increases or speed will suffer the same as an office on a LAN -- more people, more waiting
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SPEED TRANSLATION (time to download a 2MB file)???
28.8 modem -- 10 MINUTES
ISDN -- 120 SECONDS
SATELLITE -- 40 SECONDS
ADSL -- 5-50 SECONDS (depending on service and cost -- average probably 25 SECONDS -- someone correct me if this is wrong)
CABLE -- 0-2 SECONDS! (Someone tell me this is NOT true!)
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COSTS???
ISDN -- terminal adaptor ($100); Per month varies state to state ($30-$300)
SATELLITE -- hardware ($300); Per month (100 hours for $35 -- PLUS your ISP fee you are using now)
ADSL -- Per month ($40 for 256K, $65 for 512K, less than $150 for 1000K -- this may have changed?)
Cable -- Ethernet card ($50-$80); Per month ($30-$50)
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What are your chances of having one of these connections to the Internet???? One survey says by the year 2000, of those homes with Internet access:
65% will use 56K modems
7% will use cable modems
5% will use ISDN
3% will use ADSL
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SO, I guess the people with cable access are the lucky ones right now, but that is a small number of individuals. For me, living on a mountain near nothing, pretty much means I will go the Satellite route for now -- until some genius invents a NEW technology that uses existing wiring! |
