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To: Think4Yourself who wrote (27906)	12/15/1997 1:39:00 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

The great thing about Cable modems is that there is a great deal of dark fiber optic cable. Lighting up the dark cable is easy. The problems are two fold. My information leads me to believe that the switches to run cable modems are very expensive at the cable substations. If this is true then the cable company is encouraged to install as few as they can. This forces a great number of users onto each loop. This leads us to problem two. The greater the number of users on each loop, the less available throughput per user. Peter

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (27906)	12/15/1997 7:32:00 AM
From: Sector Investor	Respond to of 61433

<<Glenn, I believe you hit the crux of the problem right on the money. It's NOT the speed of the Cable Modem that will cause the problems. It is the number of people using those Cable Modems that will swamp the infrastructure bandwidth.>> Yes. And cable companies are too burdened with heavy debt to move quickly on this, so IMO they will lose out (at least short term) to xDSL alternatives which are gaining momentum.

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (27906)	12/15/1997 8:33:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 61433

Glenn, I believe you hit the crux of the problem right on the money. It's NOT the speed of the Cable Modem that will cause the problems. It is the number of people using those Cable Modems that will swamp the infrastructure bandwidth. BTW, any idea how many Cable Modems 1 coax cable can THEORETICALLY support at full speed? K, Copper using 75 Ohm coax can handle 24. The local cable company is installing all fibre now with the new lines. Not sure how many modems the fibre can support. There are 200 modems on this cable network now (not on the same loop of course) and the T3 backbone to the ISP is way inadequate at peak times. I am told by the people involved that the most costly ongoing expense is the backbone and going beyond T3 at present, would not be profitable as of yet. I know all the involved people personally and feel I get honest answers. The cable company will sign up new accounts but they do indicate that top througput during peak times is only 2Mbps at present so as not to be misleading. My residence office is in a non commercial zone. No kidding<G> I have the only modem on this loop due to cost for "home use". Glenn