Planet Broadband

Joel Natt writes "Planet Broadband is not a Star Trek episode or another Sci-Fi title. It is the title of a new book by Rouzbeh Yassini which answers the question of where the term 'broadband' originated and why is it used when discussing cable internet services." Read on for the rest of Natt's review of Planet Broadband. Planet Broadband author Rouzbeh Yassini pages 140 publisher Cisco Press rating 9 reviewer Joel Natt ISBN 1587200902 summary The birth and growth of High Speed Internet

When I first received the book, my initial thoughts were focused on the cable Internet environment, but the book addresses the DSL side as well. This small book of 140 pages, including index, not only explains how the concept of broadband communication evolved, but also delves into possible directions it may head.

This book is clearly a history of how the concept of broadband was developed and the growth of the Internet that it has led to, not a how-to-guide suited to setting up broadband service. I can foresee future generations of children reading this book in a college course on Information Technology. When one considers that only three to five percent of the American public use any form of broadband services, the growth potential presented is unbelievable.

For me, a detail-oriented reader, it took about eight hours to read Planet Broadband. That may seem slow, but considering the topic and the scope of events occurring within the world of telecommunications, it's better than I expected. As I read this book, I would pause from time to time and comment to myself on how Yassini's predictions and descriptions of possibilities offered by broadband access are already manifesting themselves. Some of the concepts presented include virtual training (which many universities are now offering) and virtual meetings with individuals all around the world. While Yassini does point out that not everything is available on demand in this day and age, in time we will witness more and more bandwidth-heavy services that are.

Yassini points out the concept of being able to check the items in the refrigerator from work, or have the washing machine place a service call to the manufacture before you know there is a problem. These are features of a true broadband planet -- and perhaps time our children and their children will not know a world where analog modems are still used to connect to the internet. But as you read, you realize that while today is the birth of broadband, this book is more the introduction to tomorrow's internet. To prove the point that Planet Broadband is an introduction, my baby-boomer mother (who works in the cable industry in customer service) took the book from me and read it cover to cover one day and told me 'This is where we are going.' If a 50+ year old parent can see it, we know that the world will be there some day.

Near the end of the book, Yassini focuses on telecommuting and a comparison of that to working at the office. While he clearly points out that telecommuting is not for everyone or all the time, it has productivity advantages and will only grow with time. I think one of his best examples is in Chapter 6, where he recalls an MCI commercial depicting a woman working at home and changing a presentation on the fly for clients and co-workers halfway across the country. That image is an example of how the world has changed thanks to the advances of broadband.

This book is not designed for the IT world, but for the general public. Just the same, I would recommend this as an excellent addition to anyone's library and especially to individuals in the information technology community. For management or others it is an excellent resource to justify a telecommuting policy or practice, or a good reason why they should upgrade from the modem and narrow band to the world of high-speed Internet.

You can purchase Planet Broadband from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Whole book?

[inkdesign]

Do we really need an entire book dedicated to the roots of a term like "Broadband?

Re:Whole book?

[garcia]

The author has a good vision.

The author HAD a good vision. He's the one that created the Cable modem. He's also the one that started the DOCSIS standard and he's also the president of LANCity cable modems (if they still exist).

There's nothing new to develop with cable modems now. DOCSIS takes care of most everything users could want (upgrades over the wire, bandwith throttling, etc).

From the review

[Anonymous Coward]

This book is not designed for the IT world, but for the general public

Seriously. Why is this posted on /. if it is for general public? This is supposed to be for us geeks/nerds.

general public read this my a%$

[millahtime]

Honestly who in the general public would want to read this. My guess is that it will just sit on a few college library shelve for a couple students over the next 30 years to look up a couple things in. What is the point of writing it?

Re:Old information.

[stratjakt]

It sounds about right to me.

Consider there's a good chunk of the US population with no computer, or no internet access at all.

Of the remainder, a good chunk has no access to broadband. America is largely rural, and you don't even have to be that remote to not have broadband options. I lived 15 minutes from Annapolis, MD and had no options. Too expensive to string cable across the chesapeake.

Of those who have it available, most dont need it. I know plenty of people who had it, and cancelled it. If all they do is read e-mail and pay bills online, it's hard to justify 50 bucks a month when a dial-up account can be had for 10 bucks.

Not everyone finds all this internet stuff as gee-whiz as slashdotters do. Their reaction to "hey you can get free music on the internet!" is "hey I can turn on the radio and not get sued".

The killer-app for broadband internet has yet to appear, something that no sane person could live without. Maybe one day streaming video will be watchable, online gaming will be enjoyable, who knows.

The analog modem

[logicassasin]

I seriously doubt that the analong modem will go away anytime soon in favor of "broadband" devices. Much like everyone predicted the floppy would go away, here we are in 2004 still using them (although fewer people rely on them as each day goes by). There are people in remote areas that will probably never see a broadband provider in their rural neighborhood and they will rely on a 56K modem for their internet access. There will be a few people that may think that broadband isn't necessary because they only use the internet for email and the occasional stock quote, news, or whatever. There are 2 other factors that the providers themselves need to address before there is a more widespread broad band uptake: Price and Availability.

BB right now is too expensive for what it is. if the price of BB can come down to something more reasonable (ie $15 per month) then people would consider it over analog, but it's availability in all areas will keep that from becoming a reality. No matter how cheap it gets, if it's not in your area, you're stuck with a modem.

I think we'll see BB overtake analog in about 10 more years, but it'll be another 10 or so before we see the analog modem go away completely.

I don't let my Washing Machine use the phone

[cfulmer]

Does anybody really want the Washing Machine to call its own repairman? Ok, maybe if there was a new Washing Machine firmware update. But, repairmen are expensive and come at inconvenient times -- I don't want somebody trying to charge me $60 for a missed appointment that my Whirlpool made on my behalf. Heck, the thing's broken and who in their right mind lets a broken washer spend their money?

Then there's the idea of having the refrigerator keep track of how long things have been in the refrigerator: how does it know what's in there? Is it going to recognize the 3-day-old leftover lasagna or the jar of homemade jam? What happens when my little girl decides to stick her baby doll in there? I really want a fridge to tell me which shelf the mustard is on, not when I'm almost out of milk -- that I can figure out for myself.

Traditional household appliances are not good users of broadband networks. Now, if I can remotely program my TIVO to record Law & Order so I can download it and watch it later from my laptop, that sounds good.