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To: David Lawrence who wrote (2265)	10/4/1998 6:39:00 PM
From: shane forbes	Respond to of 2493

David: Thanks for your thoughts. About the 53k limit here is one of the places where I saw it: news.com (Though this is just 53k to 56k and not the 64k that I mentioned, I am fairly sure that I did see an article somewhere about that but I just can't find it now - arrgh. Well at least they can get rid of that silly asterisk - (in a few years so maybe moot though because it is the World Wide Wait they may be convinced to move faster). I have no idea about the technical details so I'll have to punt here and assume that the writer who said 64k was drunk and that you are right. Crud and I was hoping for a gift from above when the 33.6 people say ah! 55-60k - now there's a real non-asterisked improvement - let's upgrage!) Here's another place where I saw the FCC limit thingie: news.com It's possible that the FCC may grant a waiver in the future that would allow speeds of 56K or higher* in the U.S.* And yup I would say that eventually DSL should do better but never underestimate the here and now! I think for the here and now cable modems have a very significant lead - I want my MTV on a cable modem through the net <NOT - ggg>. If cable modems continue to be installed and DSL takes their own sweet time and cable modems continue to be much cheaper than DSL with the appearance of much greater speed initially it will be a tough hill for DSL to climb and the longer it takes the steeper it will get. But when they get their act together re: standards and (somehow) believe that DSL will not eat into their profitable T1 business etc and somehow bring the price down to appeal to the man on the street then they will do alright. But that is a lot of ifs for the next few quarters! Having said that I agree with you that eventually DSL makes the most sense. [But I'll be getting a cable modem first for a few quarters - then when they bring down DSL to a relatively inexpensive level then maybe ADSL or whatever flavor is the flavor du jour.] Shane (and the lack of QOS for cable companies is a good point - then again thanfully Nynex is now a part of Bell Atlantic - there was a phone company dressed up in the Cable Company's Emperor's Clothes...)

To: David Lawrence who wrote (2265)	10/4/1998 8:32:00 PM
From: Leo Mitkievicz	Respond to of 2493

HEY DAVID~!!!!! Have you got a reset button you can push - ya know BACK and then START over? WHOA! comes first. One at a time I have 'em this way and little use for diplomacy under the circumstances and i'm not gonna provide URL's for things that have long been firmly fixed in the bottom center part of my hard earned understandings. 1) Cable is shared bandwidth So? There is little apparent degradation of the service with up to 500 users on a node. It might be there, but you would barely notice. Up to 1000 users is generally deemed acceptable, that is you won't notice real often. Adding a node is a relatively simple matter if one becomes overloaded. And FWIW telco's are often shared bandwidth as well, within the network. 2) Cable is unidirectional NO. Any serious cable system is bi-directional hybrid fiber coax these days. That's bi as in two way. Telco return is a serious loser. 3) far more copper in place than cable YES - you got one right, but the key is that cable serves residences almost exclusively and "copper" serves everybody. 4) Cable companies are technically incompetent. The telcos, on the other hand, know how to aggregate and distribute data. This may take more explaining than I am prepared to do in this context. I would not categorize the cable cos as incompetent. There simply has not been any serious incentive to build the same level of reliability into their systems. Remember the background of these companies: CATV. Modest charges for bringing in distant reception and delivering a signal to the home. Time-serving bean-counting management. Times have changed more than a little <ggg.> It's a growth industry now with ventures into data and even ambitions of widespread voice service. The pipe is that big. Meanwhile your telcos wish they knew how to aggregate and distribute data especially in the local loop. Their expertise at the local level is largely in analogue voice. The edges of the copper plant are a jury rigged mess and hardly qualified for use as part of a modern data network. In my opinion the cable cos will win wherever they choose to compete. This should be largely in service to residential areas. The telcos will probably win with business and possibly where they have deployed fiber to the curb with VDSL or better yet FTTH. Biggest pipe takes the prize in the long run. ADSL as we've seen it is a dead end in well before the long run. So how can ZOOM fit in? I think i'll hang in there until their directions become more apparent. One slip and i'm gone. Regards, Leo

To: David Lawrence who wrote (2265)	10/5/1998 12:31:00 PM
From: drmorgan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2493

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. Five years eh, that is probably about right on. Screw the Cable Co's and phone companies, they are evil! This is what the consumers need and it will smoke cable and DSL combined! The Teledesic system is designed to support millions of simultaneous users. Teledesic will offer a family of user equipment to access the network. Most users will have two-way connections that provide up to 64 Mbps on the downlink and up to 2 Mbps on the uplink. Higher-speed terminals will offer 64 Mbps or greater of two-way capacity. This represents access speeds more than 2,000 times faster than today's standard analog modems. teledesic.com