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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (2453)	12/5/1998 9:19:00 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Respond to of 12823

Mike - LANcity modems are being sold right now in Circuit City stores in the Northeast in a promotion by MediaOne. Ken

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (2453)	12/7/1998 6:45:00 PM
From: DenverTechie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

I guess I wasn't clear on what that data port actually is or does. It is not, as you state, a built in cable modem. Rather it is an n x 64 kb/s "gateway" back to the headend. Just like the telephone signal from the network interface unit for cable telephone modulates the telephone signal into RF, the data port modulates the data signal into RF. The connection to the computer is a big pipe, typically 10BaseT (10 Mb/s max) just like cable modem connections. Of course, the speed of the connection depends on the value of "n". But as opposed to cable modems, where the speed can fluctuate depending on bandwidth available, the data port provides a "fixed" speed. Suppose "n" equals 10. Then you would have a specified and fixed, maybe even considered "dedicated" (although I hate to use that word in this context since it becomes open to much interpretation) bandwidth of 640 kb/s. Granted, this is nowhere near the claimed speeds of cable modems, but then as we have all seen, the cable modem claims in many cases are just that. Sometimes they get slower than 14.4 kb/s dial up modems. And the price of these "data port" circuits are much lower than cable modem access prices. Because the functionality is incremental to the box used for telephone connectivity, the cost to provide data connectivity is small and the operator can charge much less for this slower service. I agree that if a user still wants blazingly fast Internet access, they would have to go to a cable modem. But would they really get blazingly faster speed than the 640 kb/s or just the illusion of such? At this point, I think there would be pretty good satisfaction with a fixed speed at 640 kb/s next to a fluctuating cable modem speed. Any one else have any thoughts on that comparison?