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Broadband Access Via Digital TV Signal?
SlashChick asks: "My mother saw a TV commercial the other night about a new form of broadband access which works via a digital TV signal. You place a digital TV antenna on your desk and it receives broadband data at up to 768K/sec. Uploading is accomplished via a dial-up modem. The company mentioned on the TV spot is Web Hopper, which is available in Cincinnati, OH. Are any Slashdot readers familiar with this service or other similar ones? Is this a good option for those who still can't get DSL or a cable modem?"
Sure, you get faster downloads, but your phone line is still tied up for the upload side.
If you can't get anything else, it might be worth a look-in, but I'm sceptical that it will be much use for anything but the most basic of Internet usage.
-MT.
Hmmm, the site says:
"an always available rate of up to 256 kilobits per second with no download cap"
I guess that is ok, but it is only double ISDN speed for about the same price and you still tie up a phone line? Personally I would wait till they have wireless upload too, if you need something now just go with ISDN, should be able to get a cheap router on eBay and the service will be about the price of this wireless and be availible in most areas.
It looks like channel 12 WKRC Cincinnati is an analog television station, not a digital one. I was really interested to find out the specifics behind subchannel broadcasting on a DTV signal... oh well.
If it is indeed an analog station, it's likely VRTI internet or Vertical Re-Trace Interval. The VRTI is the period of time when the scan-gun in your telvision dims (or turns off) and jumps from the last line in the picture to the first line in order to begin painting the next interlaced frame. This interval happens sixty times a second and can carry nearly anything if modulated right. I don't know what the resulting bit-rate would be, though.
It could also be a subcarrier within the bandwidth for channel 12, but I can't see them getting those kind of speeds with it (although its possible).
I remember reading about this many years ago and never seeing it put to real use... perhaps this is the first example?
All opinions presented here aren't mine.
File this under "only if desperate." It costs $325 to install (currently being waived) and then an ongoing $40/month, and you still have to continue your current dialup ISP service (probably around $20/mo, depending.)
It does nothing for the upstream link, which is probably okay for most things, but remember that opening a web page can involve lots of connections and POTS modems are not known for their low latency. At the most, you get 256 kbps downstream, keyword being "at most."
They advertise that the internet service will be "just as good as your TV reception", which isn't a strong statement to me. I realize that they're talking about digital TV and not analog TV (probably?) and that digital TV is supposed to be much more immune to interference. Still, it's something you have to live with.
Oh, and it's Windows 98SE or later only, with no support for anything else. This means they're probably using some custom funky TCP/IP stack. Whew, sign me up.
The government is now giving a free monopoly to the broadcast television companies and now they're even letting them charge for it!