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150 Mbit/s DSL.

surstrmming writes "German company Infineon have released their new QAM VDSL Plus chips, providing 150 Mbit/s data rates over ordinary copper wire." Note that that kinda throughput is at the 1000 feet mark... but the chip can still serve up 4mbps even at 13,000 feet.

66 of 345 comments (clear)

  1. Where is my last generation Broadband? by Traa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used to drool over the 'next-generation-is-just-around-the-corner' stories, but
    lately I have been having second thoughts.

    I live in the middle of Silicon Valley and they can't even serve me DSL better then
    190Kbits/sec. No cable modem in my area eiter. It is so painfull, I almost posted this
    anonymous ;-)

    No really...when will last generations broadband stuff truly be available to the masses
    here in the US? Who and how will they fix the last-mile problem if the governament isn't
    stimulating this issue?

    Same with the phone network. 3G you ask? HAHAHA, not in the mother-of-all-technology
    countries, nosir.

    1. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by jeeryg_flashaccess · · Score: 2, Informative

      Quit bitching...I can't get faster than 56k dial up at home. I want first generation broadband!

      BTW...screw Verizon and Comcast, I have been phoning them for over 2 years now with little or no progress. "Soon" they say.

      --
      Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
    2. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Adelphia's cable modem TOS states that multiple hosts behind a NAT is fine but they'll only support up to the NAT. THat's a perfectly fine stance in my book.

      Now, to pare down my $130 a month cable bill...

    3. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 3, Informative

      www.starband.com

      www.direcway.com

      Little pricey, but it is bi-directional satellite access .

      Latency sucks if you try to do online games or streaming
      anything , but it is good for downloading , and hits around
      500Kbps optimally .

      Peace,
      Ex-MislTech

      --
      google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
    4. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by schalliol · · Score: 2, Informative

      Man that is slow. Where are you? I'm in the Rose Garden area of Willow Glen within San Jose (near Campbell) and I get 1500Kbps down and 256kbps up with SBC [Yahoo] DSL for $44.95/month. That's what they quote and I get the top end of the range. If I paid for this and got your speed they would come out and fix it by adjusting length from the F2 or something along those lines. If you're too far from your CO you'll have to be forced to go slower, but you should not be that low!

    5. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Cox does not view multiple hosts behind a NAT as theft of service. They have a FAQ on NAT setup on their website. They also have a NAT setup service (for those of you who don't know how to set one up). I also get 3Mbit (max) down (384 up) for $40...

    6. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by bogie · · Score: 2, Informative

      That would depend on the provider, my provider doensn't do that and neither do any of my friends providers although I guess maybe some do. Personally I couldn't imagine having to go back to 640/128.

      I'll take my 10x speed and .5 price thank you.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    7. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by neobuddhist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      which state are you in? You can always contact your public service commission in whatever state you are in and they will push Verizon to help you out.

      --
      "Each day is better than the next" - My future father in law
    8. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by Tripster · · Score: 2, Interesting

      He's serious and that's CHEAP in Canada.

      For example, Bell ExpressVu DirecPC service, one-way satellite connection, you get 4GB/month and anything over that is $100/GB!! Yes, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS per GB!

      I'm in a rural area, I have no landline broadband options available (f'in cable is 1 mile away from my house though!), so my only choice right now is satellite. Needless to say, I refuse to use Bell for that rate so I've signed up with c-band.net.

      That being said, cband.net have a rather scary TOS as well, you get 400kb/s down (one way connection), but, if you download between 500MB-1000MB they can cut your speed next month to 300kb/s (small bits btw), 1000-1500MB 200kb/s next month, etc.

      Meaning, they expect you to only download about 17MB/day with their service, but here's the kicker, at full speed that takes 5 minutes.

      Luckily, they only seem to enforce the TOS for the hogs right now, I downloaded over 1500MB last month and this month I'm still at full speed, mind you I hardly hook it up right now as if you are just surfing the net then 56K works just as fast or faster if the cband.net proxy servers are too busy.

      Chances are I'll dump the satellite connection anyway, with the restrictions it's almost useless for much of anything, I'd be better off buying off cheapbytes or waiting the 2 days it takes my 56K to grab a Linux ISO.

    9. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by Zebbers · · Score: 2, Insightful

      we have no cable or dsl

      56k is all

      consider yourself relatively lucky

    10. Re:Where is my last generation Broadband? by GrandCow · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just so you know, StarBand was disowned by DishNetwork a while ago. The current customers are getting access, but they're not accepting anyone anymore. It's a dying technology. The sucessor to it is in the works though... Expect it to be HUGE (big bandwidth anywhere in the US since it's sattelite delivered, 2 way, so you'll get a huge upload speed too). I won't say much more since I don't want to jeopardize my job... but look for it in 2-3 years

      --
      "Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
  2. Pretty cool, but... by ShwAsasin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thats pretty awesome, however with some people > 5Km from their CO, they may not get a proper sync rate. I'm, thankfully, very close to my CO, and have a 3mbps line now. Downloading at 350kb/sec is awesome, but after a while the cool-factor wears off. It's handy when Red Hat and other distros of interest are released but otherwise it's an expensive (70 Canuckles a month)toy.

  3. simpsons reference... by s0rbix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe HE can provide faster nudity...

  4. My cable by shibbydude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    gets 2 Mbits per second downstream and about half a megabit upstream. I run a server from that and have heavy traffic. Given that faster is better, how much are you willing to pay for the *possibility* that your connection will be faster? SBC is the only telco that offers dsl in my area and they are not too keen on progress. I could see them using this hardware and then still regulating traffic to 300kb/s.

    --
    We're only gonna die from our own arrogance, that's why we might as well take our time...
  5. Space by winston_pr · · Score: 2, Funny

    150Mbit ?! They'd better bundle the modems with 200Gb harddrives.

    --
    "6EQUJ5"
    1. Re:Space by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 2, Insightful
      " 150Mbit ?! They'd better bundle the modems with 200Gb harddrives."

      I'd prefer that they bundled it with a gigabit ethernet card.

  6. useful for intranet too by u19925 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    many intranet connections are less than 1000 ft from the router. so now the chip could be used for intranet connections too. since most people have office phone, they can share the same line for data too and no need to worry about laying lots of ethernet cable. can i get one of those at decent price for my home networking? i have telephone connections in all rooms but no ethernet wires.

    1. Re:useful for intranet too by SonicBurst · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You don't necessarily need a dslam. I know there are a few dsl modem models (ADC megabit modems come to mind) that can run back-to-back, so you just need one for each end.

      Also, both Cisco and SMC and others I'm sure make a product called extended ethernet which is designed for just this scenario. Granted, it IS essentially a dslam, it just looks more like an ethernet switch, but you patch it and a filter/splitter into the phone lines. Also, they don't run at 150 mbit, but with this chip, they could.

      --

      Geek used to be a four letter word. Now it's a six-figure one.
  7. New, Fast DSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Great, now with my fast new DSL, I can have an extra long annoying signature..

    --

    From anonymous: "

    All I Want To Do
    Is Be Close To You,

    All I Want To Say
    Is Thank You For The Way,

    You Love Me,
    You Love Me,

    All I Want To Do
    Is Be Close To You,

    All I Want To Say
    Is Thank You For The Way,

    You Love Me,
    You Love Me,

    You Are Faithful,
    To All That You Have Promised And,

    Loving in all your ways,

    And still with all of my failings,
    You Love Me, You Love Me, You Love Me.

  8. Profit! by 56ksucks · · Score: 4, Funny

    Step 1: Move within 2000 feet of DSL provider

    Step 2: ???

    Step 3: Profit!

    --

    ---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"

  9. Typeical Cable Runs + Fibre by Richard+Dale · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These speeds aren't that impressive when considering the normal density of telephone exchanges and typical copper cable runs. It seems that the DSL bandwidth over 2 copper wires has reached the point of not being able to significantly increase the capacity at anything approaching Moore's law. When will we have carriers that value the importance of running fibre to the home and developing high capacity switches to cater for this level of bandwidth? Here in Australia, there is serious consideration for the Natural Gas utilities to provide fibre-in-the-gas-pipe-infrastructure.

    1. Re:Typeical Cable Runs + Fibre by MadCow42 · · Score: 3, Funny

      >>Natural Gas utilities to provide fibre-in-the-gas-pipe-infrastructure.

      Cool... until you turn the shutoff valve! q:]

      "No! Don't turn off the gas!"

      "But sir, your house is on fire?"

      "You'll kill my broadband!"

      "............(muttering) f$%#ing geeks...."

      MadCow.

      --
      I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
  10. Interesting... by jdh-22 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Although this is a nice breakthrough, it still doesn't fix the last mile problem. Other countries, smaller countries have a big advantage in implementing high bandwidth networks. Others like the United States and Canada are still having trouble getting to the last mile.

    Rather than keep seeing high bandwidth broadband in (rather) short distances, why not develop a network with decent speeds 500kb/s+ that can go long distances. Wireless helps, but is not quiet there. There have been discussions about internet over power lines, but no standards have been made.

    --
    Every Super Villan uses Linux.
  11. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    1000 feet = 300 Metres
    13000 feet = 4km.

  12. Displayed in a pleasant manner... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    Joint news release of Infineon and Metalink

    Munich, Germany and Yakum, Israel â" June 11, 2003 â" Addressing the market demand for ever greater reach for VDSL and ever greater bandwidth over a single pair, Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) and Metalink (Nasdaq: MTLK), today announced they are each developing VDSLPlus, which introduces a fifth-band extension of standard VDSL technology. VDSLPlus will enable service providers to offer scalable DSL services ranging from short range applications at data rates up to 150 Megabits per second (Mbps), to long reach applications that allow for more than 4Mbps rates over distances of 4km (13,200 ft) using the same line-card and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) designs.

    VDSLPlus will use a new frequency âoebandâ above the current 12 MHz limit, as defined by international VDSL standards, to achieve the highest speeds ever reached in data transmission over standard twisted-pair copper wire. The benefits of the extended QAM VDSL technology include:
      • Delivery of over 150 Mbps aggregated bandwidth over single-pair copper
        wire - at more than 300m (1000 feet).
      • Reach of over 4km (13,200 feet) at speeds exceeding 4 Mbps.
      • Compliance with all relevant VDSL standardsâ(TM) requirements including:
        Band Plan 998, 997, and those defined by the Chinese CTSI as well as any
        proprietary band plans.
      • Spectral compatibility and co-existence with narrowband and legacy DSL
        services including POTS, EuroISDN, TCM-ISDN and ADSL.
      • Support for both Ethernet and ATM over VDSL.

    "Infineon and Metalink continuously work to extend the capabilities of QAM VDSL, each making great strides in advancing the technology. As Service Providers and Carriers have mass deployed and gotten familiar with QAM VDSL over the four years it has been in the market, their demands have grown for increased VDSL bandwidth and reach, while they want QAM to maintain its highly cost effective, scalable deployment model. Metalink and Infineon are committed to collaborating with other industry leaders in extending the open QAM VDSL specifications and definitions to continuously meet this demand while preserving strict compliance to international standards," said Tzvika Shukhman, Chairman and CEO of Metalink.

    Metalink and Infineon continue to be committed to teaming with other QAM PHY and system companies to promote VDSLPlus standardization in the various standar-dization bodies and to extend the companiesâ(TM) already proven interoperability to the new technology. The two companies are the only suppliers to have demonstrated fully interoperable, commercially available VDSL products.

    " The accelerated market demand for enhanced VDSL drives the cooperation between Metalink and Infineon, especially in Asia Pacific and Japan where QAM VDSL is a huge ongoing success. VDSLPlus is an extension to field-proven QAM-VDSL technology, incorporating enhanced integration levels, higher bandwidth capacity, and greater reach capabilities. With more than two million QAM VDSL lines in service generating revenue for Operators and more than a hundred system vendors who already offer QAM-based VDSL platforms, QAM is accepted as the de-facto line code for VDSL,â said Christian Wolff, Vice President of Infineon's Communications Business Group and General Manager of the Access Business Unit.

    QAM VDSL chipsets and systems, supporting the ITU, ETSI, Chinese, and ANSI band allocation plans, provide very high speed data transmission rates over robust, noise-immune QAM links enabling simultaneous video, data, and voice services over single-pair copper wires. The inherent simplicity of the QAM line code is demon-strated in superior cost and power advantages over competing VDSL line codes, yet with QAMâ(TM)s sophisticated features and benefits.

  13. For most, won't matter. by Tyler+Eaves · · Score: 4, Informative

    As the subject says, 99.9% of the the people out there are limited not by the capability of the line, but by the limits imposed by the service provider.

    --
    TODO: Something witty here...
  14. DSL needs shot in the arm by Saganaga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most people I know who have a choice between DSL and cable modem have gone with cable (myself included). This mostly comes down to the speed difference (although in my case it also had to do with a maddening disconnect problem that Qwest DSL could not seem to solve for me).

    If DSL could truly start offering service that is MUCH faster than cable, they might be able to reverse the trend towards cable (67% for cable vs. 28% for DSL according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study.)

  15. Non-troll slashdotted text by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    News

    VDSL Leaders Announce VDSLPlus: Data Rates Up to 150Mbps and Extended Reach Exceeding 4 KM Using Robust QAM Technology
    2003-06-11

    Joint news release of Infineon and Metalink

    Munich, Germany and Yakum, Israel â" June 11, 2003 â" Addressing the market demand for ever greater reach for VDSL and ever greater bandwidth over a single pair, Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) and Metalink (Nasdaq: MTLK), today announced they are each developing VDSLPlus, which introduces a fifth-band extension of standard VDSL technology. VDSLPlus will enable service providers to offer scalable DSL services ranging from short range applications at data rates up to 150 Megabits per second (Mbps), to long reach applications that allow for more than 4Mbps rates over distances of 4km (13,200 ft) using the same line-card and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) designs.

    VDSLPlus will use a new frequency âoebandâ above the current 12 MHz limit, as defined by international VDSL standards, to achieve the highest speeds ever reached in data transmission over standard twisted-pair copper wire. The benefits of the extended QAM VDSL technology include:

    • Delivery of over 150 Mbps aggregated bandwidth over single-pair copper wire - at more than 300m (1000 feet).
    • Reach of over 4km (13,200 feet) at speeds exceeding 4 Mbps.
    • Compliance with all relevant VDSL standardsâ(TM) requirements including: Band Plan 998, 997, and those defined by the Chinese CTSI as well as any proprietary band plans.
    • Spectral compatibility and co-existence with narrowband and legacy DSL services including POTS, EuroISDN, TCM-ISDN and ADSL.
    • Support for both Ethernet and ATM over VDSL.

    "Infineon and Metalink continuously work to extend the capabilities of QAM VDSL, each making great strides in advancing the technology. As Service Providers and Carriers have mass deployed and gotten familiar with QAM VDSL over the four years it has been in the market, their demands have grown for increased VDSL bandwidth and reach, while they want QAM to maintain its highly cost effective, scalable deployment model. Metalink and Infineon are committed to collaborating with other industry leaders in extending the open QAM VDSL specifications and definitions to continuously meet this demand while preserving strict compliance to international standards," said Tzvika Shukhman, Chairman and CEO of Metalink.

    Metalink and Infineon continue to be committed to teaming with other QAM PHY and system companies to promote VDSLPlus standardization in the various standar-dization bodies and to extend the companiesâ(TM) already proven interoperability to the new technology. The two companies are the only suppliers to have demonstrated fully interoperable, commercially available VDSL products.

    " The accelerated market demand for enhanced VDSL drives the cooperation between Metalink and Infineon, especially in Asia Pacific and Japan where QAM VDSL is a huge ongoing success. VDSLPlus is an extension to field-proven QAM-VDSL technology, incorporating enhanced integration levels, higher bandwidth capacity, and greater reach capabilities. With more than two million QAM VDSL lines in service generating revenue for Operators and more than a hundred system vendors who already offer QAM-based VDSL platforms, QAM is accepted as the de-facto line code for VDSL,â said Christian Wolff, Vice President of Infineon's Communications Business Group and General Manager of the Access Business Unit.

    QAM VDSL chipsets and systems, supporting the ITU, ETSI, Chinese, and ANSI band allocation plans, provide very high speed data transmission rates over robust, noise-immune QAM links enabling simultaneous video, data, and voice services over single-pair copper wires. The inherent simplicity of the QAM line code is demon-strated in superior cost and power advantages over competing VDSL line codes, yet with QAMâ(TM)s sophisticated features and benefits. These advantages are f

  16. That's fast but, by xeaxes · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Would it ever come to America? With only the few major companies controlling most of the broadband access, and the FCC making it harder for the little guys to survive, innovations like this get conveniently left behind for larger profit margins.

    I now have broadband from a small, independent company (that is slowly going under cause of SWB), but I get 4 Mbit down and 500 Kbit up for about half the price of SWB's 1.5 Mbit down w/ 16 Kbit up. I routinely have 350 - 450 KB/s downloads, and they have great service. They would most likely hop on a technology like this so they can keep ahead of the big companies, but they are going under.

    Without the little companies, there will never be incentive for the big companies to invest in techonology like this or any other technologies that would improve our online experience.

    --

    "BEHOLD, CORN!!" - Dr. Weird, ATHF

  17. Old technology by bigjnsa500 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why use this old technology when they can invest in newer technology like fiber to the house and/or Internet2 connectivity?

    --
    This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
    1. Re:Old technology by CdaveC · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually xDSL is newer technology than fiber. The reason most telcos use DLS is because itâ(TM)s VERY expensive to lay fiber (especially if you've already got infrastructure in place, i.e. copper).

      I would like telcos to step up and start offering consumer grade DSL with synchronous transfers and faster speeds, how about 5Mbps, or 3Mbps even!! We can talk faster after that!

    2. Re:Old technology by GPB · · Score: 3, Informative

      You'll never get Internet2 connectivity, unless you are a research institution (or related to one in some capacity). Read about the purpose of Internet2 here.

      Basically Internet2 is a big playground for Universities and research institutions. The idea is that on this playground they will develop new technologies that will someday get folded back into the good old commodity Internet.

      -Brian

  18. As if it will matter... by Nicholas+Schumacher · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Who cares if it can do 150 Mbit?

    Nobody is going to run that kind of pipe out to the CO.

    --
    -Nick
    My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. You killed my master. Prepare to die.
    1. Re:As if it will matter... by snubber1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Did I just hear the words 'mission-critical' and 'DSL' in the same sentence? I have yet to see a DSL line, business or otherwise, that won't go down like a two-dollar whore at a moments notice.

      That's what your paying for with a leased line, quality of service. Every time I took the T1 down at work I got a call within a minute or two from the telco wanting to recify the situation.

      --
      I don't really mind double posts on //..
  19. you must have missed this story: by Erris · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
    1. Re:you must have missed this story: by brave1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, I believe that the days of the baby bells dragging their feet (as the previous Slashdot post mentioned) on High Speed Internet Access are over. I believe that Cable currently accounts for 7 or 8 out of every 10 new broadband users. With the erosion of the residential phone line customer base due to cell phones, the "Bells" are looking for ways to keep customers from switching. (It has been shown that customers that have more than one service are less likely to switch.) Both Verizon and SBC have begun to aggressively price DSL to try and regain some market share.

      --
      - http://www.braveterry.com/
  20. QAM? by Xunker · · Score: 5, Informative

    If I may karma whore for a bit, what is this "QAM" busniess?

    QAM stands for "Quadrature Amplitude Modulation" which is a fancy name for a simple concept. Also called "I/Q modulation" it's a way to transmit two data streams over the same carrier signal.

    The streams are combined in such a way that they can be separated at the other end by using the two most elegant mathematical theorems of man, sine and cosine. What happens, in basic terms, the streams are at "right angles" to each other in the signal.

    Being able to have two carriers worth of data can provide a geometric increase in capacity; this was also the technology that was going to be behind "Stereo AM" radio, but that never made it off the ground (Stero AM would have been cool since it would only have to use one frequency for both left and right channels unlike our current analogue sterophonic FM that uses 2 channels).

    --
    Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
    1. Re:QAM? by gouldtj · · Score: 3, Informative

      Just another tag onto that:

      QAM is the modulation that they use for digital cable also. Most networks are QAM 64 today, going to QAM 256 in the future, sometime.

    2. Re:QAM? by rcw-work · · Score: 2, Informative
      Being able to have two carriers worth of data can provide a geometric increase in capacity

      No, it can't.

      For a given signal-to-noise ratio, double the bitrate still requires double the bandwidth. Improvement in modulation techniques can only serve to more closely approximate the theoretical.

    3. Re:QAM? by PetiePooo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I considered moderating this as overrated, but thought it would be better to explain why I thought so.

      Being able to have two carriers worth of data can provide a geometric increase in capacity; ...

      The post makes it sound like it can double almost any existing signal, when in fact QAM (or other techniques combining amplitude with either phase or frequency such as OFDM) has existed in most modulation methods for a long time. Its a rare exception where data is being modulated strictly through AM or FM.

      ... it would only have to use one frequency for both left and right channels unlike our current analogue sterophonic FM that uses 2 channels).

      Stereo FM doesn't use two separate frequencies. They modulate R+L as mono on the on the baseband. Then they modulate R-L above that. Then the modulate the baseband carrier using standard FM. A mono receiver works as normal, since it just cuts off the IF frequencies above a certain threshold. However, a stereo receiver regenerates the stereo separation by recovering those additional higher frequencies. Here's an explanation with graphics.

    4. Re:QAM? by WhiplashII · · Score: 3, Informative

      Quadrature Amplitude Modulation is where you transmit some bits in the amplitude of the signal, and some bits in the phase (delay) of the signal. Basically it is a way to get more bits from the same bandwidth by trading sensitivity to phase noise. Most electronic transmissions use QAM.

      --
      while (sig==sig) sig=!sig;
  21. What about the remote users? by unfortunateson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm currently about 5KM or so from my CO. No ADSL available, only Comcast cable modem with their usual bandwidth throttling.

    SBC did offer to sell me SDSL: twice the price of their standard ADSL ($80/mo) at 128K (bleah).

    How about some devices to make it easy to relay the DSL signals to the edges of the CO's area?
    If a chip can give you those great speeds at 4KM, can we at least get reasonable service beyond that?

    --
    Design for Use, not Construction!
  22. Fiber-Fed Neighborhood by Agent+Green · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is great...but seriously out of reach of most subscribers to even be cost-effective to implement.

    Then there are the people like me who live in fiber-fed areas. It doesn't matter how close I am to the CO, but because my copper terminates in a SLIC hut and not on a CO's MDF, I'm SOL.

    People in my shoes traditionally have had to use either IDSL-based services (DSL over ISDN carrier for 144k), or get a T1.

    I wish I had the coin for a T1, though.

    --
    // Agent Green (Ian / IU7 / KB1JQO)
    // IEEE 802.3: All 10base Are Belong To Us
    1. Re:Fiber-Fed Neighborhood by Boing · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yikes. I'd better stop reading this discussion; That was ten percent less than a lethal dose of acronyms.

    2. Re:Fiber-Fed Neighborhood by Cramer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ISDN is simply expensive (unless you live in TN.) It's not at all difficult. There are a few extra steps beyond "plug in line", but really, how hard is it to enter the switch type and SPIDs provided by the telco? (If you can get ISDN, you can get IDSL... where I work, we have IDSL lines in SC terminated on a DSLAM back in Raleigh, NC. As long as you are withing 50,000ft of an ISDN capable CO, the line can be terminated anywhere.)

      Satellite is a pain in the ass for what you get out of it. You cannot install it yourself (legally) -- and most of the people paid to install it aren't very good at it.

      I have ISDN. Yes, it's twice the cost of a cable modem and ~1.5x the cost of IDSL. However, I've had this line longer than either cable modems or DSL have existed. Aside from the CO crashing once, I've had no problems with it.

  23. Well, it's neat and all... by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ..but for the home user it's impractical until the internet catches up to it. I wonder what'll come along where 150mb becomes a must have?

    Anybody read up on the Internet 2? If memory serves, they've been dishing out 100mbs or so. I can't remember what they were doing with that bandwidth, though.

    I'm not asking from a cynical perspective. I'm really curious what happens when 150mbs can be served up. The first thing that pops into my mind is setting up a server at home (assuming 150 up as well as down. I can dream!) and remotely accessing it anywhere. Fun stuff. Wish I was more imaginitive tho.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  24. Re:My Provider... by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 5, Informative

    The usual reason it slows down is because their local data
    line to your local CO is over sold .

    They hook up more ppl than they should to the line to
    maximize their profits, it is the same thing AOL did
    back in the mid 90's just at a DSL scale vs. dial up .

    The whole shared bandwidth argument touted by DSL providers
    against the cable modem ppl , is just a viable against
    the DSL providers .

    If you abuse the network and over sell it, it is going to
    slow down for ppl .

    You might try another DSL modem, NIC, and PC on the connection,
    but if they are the same slower speed then your problem
    most likely lies with them over selling the lines .

    Peace,
    Ex-MislTech

    --
    google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
  25. Great News for ISPs by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny
    This is great news for ISPs! After the user has exhausted his 1 GB monthly bandwidth allocation, he can now choose to purchase more extra bandwidth to enhance revenue.

    If extra bandwidth is only 10 cents per megabyte, a single user on a 150mbit line could choose to purchase up to $4,860,000.00 per month (plus $324,432.46 federal excise tax and $127,368.32 universal service fee) of additional data services! If only a few percent of all users decide to puchase this much data, there would be a huge potential for revenue growth.

  26. 4mbps! oh really? by displague · · Score: 5, Funny

    4 millibits per second!!!

    Outstanding!

    At that rate, this 122 Byte comment would take 67 hours 45 minutes to transfer!

    --
    Marques Johansson
  27. Useful top end? by peatbakke · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, it's great that it can pull down 150Mb/s ... but you've gotta have an empty OC3 to feed it. And if you've got an OC3, might as well kick out the extra cash to run in the extra 300 meters.

    The 4km @ 4Mb/s is pretty nice, though.

  28. Fuggetaboutit by TerryAtWork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's all going to be swept away by Digital Spread Spectrum.

    The Net will be in the air, encrypted, ubiquitous, undetectable, unstoppable and free.

    --
    It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
    1. Re:Fuggetaboutit by evilviper · · Score: 4, Informative
      The Net will be in the air

      No wireless, high-speed connections can go for very long distances. (Although I'll be the first to jump at it when there is a technological leap that makes it possible)

      Since long-hauls are everywhere, there's no chance that wireless alone is going to form an international network. In fact, many countries have very very long hauls, which means even wireless national networks aren't possible in many places.

      encrypted,

      Any encryption used will be poor... IPSec is nice and everything, but you don't want to waste that much CPU power, and delay, just to visit slashdot. Chances are, it'll stick with the current model. Normal communications will be either plain-text or poorly obfusticated, and only the sites that need serious security will use strong encryption, and they will use that for as little as possible.

      ubiquitous,

      Like I said, not until there is a technological breakthrough.

      undetectable,

      There's a funny one... Yes, I'm sure everyone will just assume your computer naturally gives off hundreds of times the ammount of electromagnetic energy of a cell phone. Not really undetectable...

      unstoppable

      Not really, perhaps in theory though. Create enough interference on the frequency range it uses, and you can stop it.

      and free.

      Free as in, without limits? As in, your electric bill?
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  29. Re:My Provider... by Shdwdrgn · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most likely that is 80K BYTES /s, which roughly translates to 640K BITS /s. What was the advertised speed of your DSL connection? They usually list it by the bps, however many software programs will report transfer speeds as Bps (note the upper/lower case 'B'), which can cause a lot of confusion for anyone who is not familiar with the differences.

  30. This is getting really annoying by RhettLivingston · · Score: 3, Insightful

    DSL has been in the works for around 10 years now and still doesn't come close to its goal of providing one video bandwidth channel which is short of the goal it should have. The problem here is that it takes forever to roll out a new infrastructure. Its time the leaders of the industry realize it and make sure that the next infrastructure rollout has the latent capacity (if not the electronics at the nodes) to carry the petabaud traffic that we'll be wanting in 50 years (that's about how often we can afford to do this crap). Spending any more time and resources on copper is wasting time.

    There is a market today for multiple on demand video channels, voice, and internet over a single service. As a consumer, I'd pay double just for the pleasure of dropping SBC on their !@#. Plan for that, meet that, and don't even waste a breath on anything short of that.

    To reiterate, the minimum bandwidth requirement for any new deployments should be enough to serve at least three unshared video channels, 3 voice lines, and very high bandwidth internet service simultaneously with room in the medium for growth into the dedicated petabaud range over the next 50 years. Anything less is causing a delay in progress while filling fatcats pockets with the proceeds from rolling out already obsolete services.

    1. Re:This is getting really annoying by RhettLivingston · · Score: 4, Informative

      You're sadly misinformed. True rate ADSL as it was originally planned was capable of 7 MBaud downstream. This was designed specifically to hold a television channel with the compression capabilities of the mid 90s. The lite version that was deployed has less power, supposedly to eliminate the need for trips to the premises to install filters, is only capable of 1.5 MBaud. Supposedly, they didn't find out until after they started deploying that the real world would still require the filters. So, we got stuck with a crippled version for no reason other than perhaps to reduce the electric bill of the switch by about 60%. Furthermore, only the people closest to a switch get that. Though in a major metropolitan area, my DSL connection is limited to about 768KB. The only reason I keep it versus cable is that my provider is very good about actually giving me the whole 768KB unlike some which would bottleneck you to modem speeds at their routers during peak traffic loads.

      So, a very few might be able to get 1MBaud. I can't. I've tried to view 300KBaud streams and the quality/resolution is so little as to be worthless.

      Also, I think 1MB of mpeg4 falls a bit short of what I'd expect to see on an IP based video stream. Chances are I'm going to be watching that on my computer display at times and it has 2048x1536 resolution. I at least expect HDTV signal resolution with good quality. Certainly anything being thought of now and thus not fully deployed until years down the road has to at a minimum target HDTV.

      So, I'd like to see a minimum of about 30MBaud guaranteed bandwidth at the worst case distance. But that is just when thinking of current day consumer side technology. There are a lot of hardware advances in the labs now (and some even out of the labs) that could make good use of far more bandwidth than that. There are even production 3D displays available today.

      So, my point is that someone looking at what to deploy today and looking at lifetimes in the range of 20-50 years before the deployment cost is paid off as many of these companies are doing, needs to be planning to provide a bandwidth that will be able to grow at a rate of at least 2X every 2 years if not 18 months. We are a long ways today from the 300baud modems of the early 80s and by the early 20s, we should plan to be just as far from 1.5MBaud. That would put us at about 4GB in the 2023 time frame and over 100 PBaud in the 2043 time frame (those that are saying now that there is no way you'd ever use that must not have lived through the 64K, 640K and other barriers of the past that were more than we'd ever need). Thus there is definitely a need for high quality (not plastic) fiber to the curve to be laid by any projects wanting to compete in the long term.

  31. Re:viable alternative to cable? by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 2, Informative

    Setup a 802.11g neighborhood Co-op .

    Have several ppl use Mesh AP's www.locustworld.com

    All of you use different providers as allowed .

    If one provider goes down, the others will be your
    route to the net . You'll see slow down but never
    go down, and when they are all working , you can
    get combined bandwidth .

    As long as you are all not leeching at the same
    time and do not duplicate downloads, ie. large filez .

    You will get a better bandwidth experience .

    I am setting up on of these in a rural town .

    The scary part can be getting to know all the
    ppl around you , lol .

    Peace,
    Ex-MislTech

    --
    google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
  32. Be carefull... Note "Aggregated Bandwidth" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    They say 150Mbps bandwidth, but notice the word "aggregated". That means total bandwidth up and downstream combined. This does not mean you are going to get 150Mbps downstream folks. I work for a small startup company that sells VDSL systems in Korea. Our current VDSL technology supports almost 100Mbps aggregated bandwidth.

    peace

  33. I don't mean to troll, but by vidnet · · Score: 4, Insightful
    What's with the people going "yeah whatever, we won't get it here in the US anyways"! I don't mean to troll, but there is much, much more to the world than the USA.

    If your own commercialism stops innovation from reaching consumers, vote democratic. Don't oppose taxes. Write letters to your local representatives.

    Whining gets you nowhere, and it's just annoying for those of us who actually have a shot at using this technology.

  34. feh by jpellino · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, Herr Speedy-Hosen, for 1000 feet, I could just hire Michael Johnson to run across campus in - erm - 30 seconds with - let's see - 700 MB per cd... 150 mbit per sec... um..... (click click click) 1,400 cds on his back and get the same throughput! SO TH... What? Ah. OK - maybe this IS a breakthrough after all. Never mind.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  35. Other Infinion story - instant-boot chip by prostoalex · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Infineon seems to be all over the news today. Besides this release here's another one:

    New chip boots up computers like a light

    International Business Machines Corp. and German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG said they have made an important step toward developing a new kind of memory that could enable computers to boot up instantaneously. IBM said that the magnetic random access memory technology, or MRAM, could replace existing forms of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM -- which is the most popular form of computer memory -- as early as 2005.
  36. Let's solve the last mile! by RandyF · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Hey!

    Let's stop the whining about lack of high-speed coverage! I have another idea.

    Anybody up for pitching in together to build a company to force the last mile. We'll simply bypass the telco and cable companies, put in higher bandwidth than this, charge reasonable fees, and have on-demand video and VOIP as built in services. We'll start with dense neighborhoods and then acquire grants for poor neighborhoods and rural areas. We'll use a shared bandwidth scheme with a minimum speed gurantee. If only 1 user is active, he gets the whole pipe.

    It's time to stop the whining about how bad the high bandwidth coverage is and just start making money changing it!

    There are enough of us out there (and I'm talking just /.ers) who can cover the technical, financial, and regulatory bases and make this thing happen. Why wait for the bloated telcos and cable companies to build (and own) the new infrastructure. Let's build it ourselves.

    New Motto: No more dark fiber! No more dialups!

    --
    --==-- I've found Karma to be a relative thing... Ya know, the kind you invite to Christmas... ;)
  37. Bandwidth-wise, nothing beats... by jetmarc · · Score: 4, Funny

    ..a Federal Express aircraft full of DVD's. Although ping latency is horrible :(

  38. Start a neighborhood Co-op by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 2, Informative

    Talk to everyone in your neghborhood, ask them if
    they want broadband .

    You can use point to multi-point, and can use Mesh
    topology to extend your range too .

    Mesh AP www.locustworld.com

    Find a high elev. landmark, and use that as a Wi-Fi
    transmission point .

    The Co-op can be a non/not-for-profit and you can
    save money on some taxes, and expenses .

    The cost per user goes down the more users you get .

    I am setting up one of these in a rural area soon .

    Peace,
    Ex-MislTech

    --
    google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
  39. Not future tech - my ISP offers it *now* by Bj�rn+Stenberg · · Score: 2, Informative

    My ISP, Bostream, offers this to customers already. Here's their service info page (in swedish)

    In essense it says depending on distance to your switch, you get:

    <300m: 26 Mbps full duplex
    <1000m: 13 Mbps full duplex
    >1000m: 8/1 Mbps (down/up)

    Price: 399 SEK/month (~50 USD)

    Another swedish ISP, Bredbandsbolaget, is also offering VDSL but currently "only" up to 10Mbit.

  40. Typo in the article? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2, Informative

    4MB at 13,000 feet is about the same as standard ADSL (in fact my ISP offers such a package relatively cheaply).

    4MB at 130,000 feet would be impressive, though...

    The top speed at 1000 feet sounds good, too, until you remember that at that distance you could run cat5e at 100MB (maximum distance for cat5e is about 1100 feet, cat7 goes about a mile... don't see much of that on sale though).

  41. VDSL @ home by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 2, Informative

    Damn, that blew my bragging rights for 26 MBit/sec with VDSL... Ok, I won't get it until September, but still. Check out Scream at www.bostream.com for about 35 USD a month through your telephone wires. Make sure your area is covered by their services.