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50Mbps Cable Launched on Long Island
the-dark-kangaroo writes "Cable Vision have teamed up with Narad Networks to provide a new 50Mbps broadband service in the New York metropolitan area. The current deployment has a capability of 100Mbps (the connections are symmetric) with future developments allowing up to 10Gbps connections. The system utilises current cabling systems allowing enterprise level connections to homes and businesses."
OptimumOnline caps their customer's upload throughput at 150kbit/s for uploading "too much". They don't even tell you what "too much" is. Their normal caps are rather generous at 10mbit/1mbit, but what's the point if you can't actually use it?
...I gotta say, 50Mbps broadband would be enough to entice me to return. I'd like to run a Freenet node, but only if I had big bandwidth upstream. 50Mbps is _big_ bandwidth, and it's symmetrical.
With all the fear and loathing over p2p, I'm surprised to see that they're allowing high-speed symmetrical connections like this. I was fully expecting 50Mbps down/16Kbps up, or something similarly retarded.
And what does this do to hosting providers like serverbeach? That 50Mbps is going to be unmetered, right? So the game server, your new pay-per-view pr0n site, and the blog all get hosted at home on the Mac Mini. Wow.
And no, it's not flamebait about Long Island. People who live there know what I'm talking about. It's the traffic. You have to drive to get anywhere and even a simple trip to the grocery store and back can make you go insane. To say nothing of commuting. And if you're actually commuting to Manhattan and back, I only have two words for you: hard drugs.
Video on demand over ip, here we come.
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Why is it that they always love to wax orgasmicaly about how fast their connections are but all these unlimited plans have caps of 10gb a month or so? How about you give your customers increased bandwith usage rather then hypothetical speed increases?
looks like fiber to the premesis is causing real competition... good to see cable companoes still know how to compete...
Get your torrents...
Lets face it, people using those huge connections are mostly downloading very large files for p2p networks. I know there are other uses, but I say generally. Now that the door have been opened for companies to held liable for the actions of users, its only a matter of time before ISP are killing your connection and turning you over to the RIAA or the like so they can save themselves a law suit. Disagree all you want. Hollywood WILL get their way. After that, whats the point of a insane fast connection....oh let me guess, for "research papers"? It's a sad time in america.
Never believe anything Cablevision writes or says, it'll be just smoke and mirrors. Had the "service" and anytime there was a hiccup, no connection, smtp service down, long delays in response, their "tech support" ws nowhere to be found. That is if you can actually get a live person to answer the "customer Service" or "Customer Support" phone lines. I wouldn't go back to cablevision service even if it was free for ever. Not worth the hassles. Ex cablevision customer from Brooklyn.
Here in Sweden you can already get 100 mbit up/down without limitations or caps for around 45 USD ( www.bredband2.se ) in an assortment of locations, not only universities. It's even better in Japan and Korea I think.
So how do you write that sound that Homer Simpson makes when he sees a box of donuts? That's the sound I'm making right now...
Last time I had service with them, I had latency shoot up to above 1000ms two router hops ahead of me for about 7 hours a day. Absolutely useless service, would not advise anyone to fall for their marketing.
Seriously, before I could only have a player about a quarter the size of my monitor, if I tried to expand the size of the porn any more, it would not be clear. Her skin would not look smooth and soft. Now I can watch porn the way it was intended to be, in High Definition.
And before people start bashing me, anwser one question? How much money is made in porn on the web every year? How much money does Amazon make on the web? See... the web is there for porn, everything else is icing on the cake.
To the people of IRAN, if you censor your web, you will never get 100 megs a second. The moment you let people masturbate, the porn industry will come to Terahn and give you 100 megs a second!! But along with titles such as "Touched by Alah", you will have to let people have "Mr. Azerja, the goatfucker". Actually, I am sorry for that last joke. Please forgive me. I am going to burn in hell for that one.
What else is 100 megs a second good for? TV on demand? I wonder how the DirectTV and Dish will counter these fast speeds that cable has. What will DSL do? I hate supporting cable providers, because back when they were the only choice (for cable tv), they were the worst customer service pricks around-
Me: "Hi, I saw your advertisment for $29.95 instal with two months of HBO for half price with basic service"
Them: "Hey, hold on one second... *strange noise*... Okay, what did you want???
Me: "I'd like to order cable service, can you come out this Saturday?"
Them: "No way. Let me look... ahh, okay, we can come out in three weeks, the 13th."
Me: "Any way you can come sooner?"
Them: "No"
Me: "Okay I guess, what time can you be here?"
Them: "We will be there between the hours of 8am and 7pm."
Me: "WHAT??? I'd like to not wait all day"
Them: "Hold on, I have another call."
CLICK- call disconected.
Second Call
Me: "Hi, I was just disconnected"
Them: "Oh, yeah, what do you want again?"
Me: "I'd like to order service"
Them: *noise of chips crunching* "Yeah, fine, okay".
Me: "How do I order service"
Them: "Let me get to that screen. I am going to need to put you on hold again"
Me: "NOOOOOOO"
CLICK- call disconected
Third Call
Me: "You hung up on me again!"
Them: "No I didn't, I put you on hold"
Me: "Whatever, I want to order cable service"
Them: "Sure thing, we can get to you in four weeks, on the 20th"
Me: "You just told me three weeks, now it is four?"
Them: "Yeah, we had a mad dash of orders since I last talked to you"
The only good thing about the cable industry is they are so fucking currupted, it is easy to steal from them. I know people who had free HBO for 10 years just because they slipped the instal guy $20 bucks. Now that things are going digital, it does not work as well, because you need that box. And RTF Gold does not descrable all the pay-per-view stuff. But the one trick that is left, if you only want basic service and internet, is to order just the internet and then split the cable. You will get basic programming for free.
Having said that, I wonder what the sweet spot for broadband and tv service is, including stealing? Anyone have the gigantic dishes? Anyone know how to get all the premium stations and pay per view for free?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Tell me about it. After being driven crazy by my ISP for 4 years or so, I got the cheapest reliable connection in Poland that has a static IP (we're going to beta-test our game on my comp to cut costs).
$100 for 2Mbps down / 256 kbps up (yes, that's cheapest DSL that doesn't have monthly transfer limit of 35-or-so GB).
$110 installation, $100 monthly. And that's only because they offer a "promotion" since the begining of June (was much more). Plus it's a minimum 24 months deal.
You guys don't have a clue what less fortunate people (why oh why wasn't I born in a civilized country?) feel when they read your complaints about the level of service you're being provided with (and costs associated with it, especially when you take a look at average salary).
I remember selling my Sega Genesis and a slew of game cart's for $100 towards a 14.4 kbps modem back when 28.8 was a distant rumor. I remember imagining text zipping by at 28800 baud and wondering why anyone who wasn't downloading warez would ever need a modem that fast.
I also remember thinking that the World Wide Web was just a passing fad.
If service providers can give enough consumers more bandwidth, content providers will give consumers more to download.
Well, I'm sure the Swedish government will be tracking you down to have a word with you, since it's YOUR post that will have been responsible for Slashdotting The Swedish Immigration Board's website now...
I have to admit, the idea of real LAN-speed broadband internet in my home is givin' me a nerd-on...
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I'm moving to New York
Cablevision isn't just doing this to be nice. Verizon is set to launch FiOS (Fiber Optic Service) in the area very shortly. In NJ they have been stringing fibers for the last few months.. I actually called them today and they told me I would be able to order fiber possibly as early as tomorrow. I'm currently an Optimum Online subscriber and am definitely going to be switching over ASAP.
;) Or is it okay for fiber not to work during power outages as it is Verizon who supplies it rather than some upstart VoIP business that doesn't have the lobbying power that incumbent telcos do...?) If you have a pair of binoculars you can check out your poles and look for the little Corning boxes.
Their pricing plan is pretty good:
Down/Up
Up to 5 Mbps/2 Mbps $39.95
Up to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps $49.95
Up to 30 Mbps/5 Mbps 199.95
The number direct to the FiOS center is: 908-474-9728
Verizon doesn't publicize it yet, but the people who answer do have access to a database telling them which switches are going live and when. Today when I called, I told asked if I was going to have service in my small town.. when he said no, I told him the local switch which served us (obtainable via Local Exchange Routing Guide). He acted very surprised and said that indeed we would have FiOS activated very soon now.
Of course this was obvious as Verizon has spent $$$ wiring fiber everywhere which should be the next big thing(tm). They even replace the normal copper wires going to your house with fiber (doesn't work in a power outage though! I hope nobody gets upset about 911
This is not a subscriber level service.
Cable companies essentially have the same topology in HFC (hybrid fiber-coax) networks. They have their data center, with their connection to the backbone, and have fiber to several hubs, which are essentially the "regional" or "metropolitan" branch sites. From the hubs, served by fiber, coax is run to the individual nodes, which subscriber services are branched off from. What this is all about is the connection between hubs and nodes - there's more overhead bandwidth available farther downstream - but not yet to the customer premise. The four coax lines sent from the hub to the node can now support 100mbps symmetrical.
This enhances the inter-nodal communications, the junctions between the fiber backbone most major cable companies have deployed and the coax they use to push their various signals out to consumer premises. In essence, they're getting 100mbps over coax for the four coax "pipes" used to support the node itself. While it's a big deal insomuch as it means they have a lot more ceiling with regards to bandwidth and deployment of available services, it's not the point that they've got fiber past the hubs to the individual nodes... yet. It does mean, however, that there's less need to deploy more nodes (read: capital expense) so they can spend that money on R&D and getting "faster" to go "farther." Ultimately, it'll end up with fiber to the pole, then finally fiber to the house.
What it WILL mean? You should see an increase in upload caps sooner than you thought... and cable companies are getting ready for a lot, lot more HD and HD-on-demand services. Remember, their focus is still video - data is just an added bonus.
When I'm downloading at a full 4Mbit via http, I'm almost completely saturating the 512Kbit upstream.
If it were really 50Mbit downstream, they'd need to give something like 8Mbit up, or at the very least 4.
I call BS. The overhead for ACKs on a pure download is _not that_ high. I ran netstat -bI 1 while downloading a file via HTTP:
376704 9420
323586 9708
378421 9724
377904 9228
First number is bytes down, second is bytes up over the last second. The ratio is roughly 40:1. You must have done something wrong saturating half an Mbit with a 4Mb download.
Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6