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Increased Bandwidth Irrelevant?
halbert writes "ArsTechnica has a story about AT&T COO Randall Stephenson telling folks that there is 'no discernable difference' between AT&T's 1.5 Mbps service and Comcast's 6 Mbps, because the backbone is slowing everything down. The main argument from the article is that fiber to the home is not necessary. How about letting the consumer decide that?" From the article: "This is a direct response to the criticism that AT&T has suffered for deploying a fiber optic network that reaches only to the local node, not directly into a customer's home--which means that the 'last mile' connection is still copper wire. Verizon, by contrast, is deploying fiber directly into the home, making for much higher speeds. AT&T argues that its model is cheaper, faster to deploy, and just as capable as Verizon's, which currently uses much of its massive bandwidth to distribute RF TV channels."
and I sometimes get 3 - 4 Mbit / sec on sustained downloads. end of argument. AT&T, fix your slow shit.
I maxed my 5Mbps Cox cable modem connection the other day downloading some Linux iso's...
I Don't know about Comcast, but with TimeWarner at 5mbs I tend to get the full speed or at least close to it. And it is defiantly faster then 1.5mbs. Especially using Bittorrent for large Linux ISOs, I can get up to 600 KiloBytes Per second which is 4.8mbs. I think it is AT&T just trying to Scam Us, and stop using faster Internet in which VoIP is clearer.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
If the backbone is too busy to provide the ultra-high speed service today, what about the future, when it's capable of handling more data at higher speeds?
At that point, people who already have the high-speed "last mile" connection can make full use of the new capabilities, while those who have the slower connection will have to lay new wiring.
Of course the difference is not very big right now, at least not to average Joe. Developers gear content towards what most of their customers will be able to use, if most people have a 1mbit connection, then it makes no sense to develop sites that require a 6mbit connection to look decent. Once more people have faster connections, developers can make their sites even more media-rich. Verizon appears to be planning for the future, while AT&T can only see whats going on right now.
There IS, however, a noticable difference between the 2Mbps upstream on FIOS, the 768Kbps upstream on (my) DSL, and the 256Kbps upstream on cable around here. At least, for anybody who has ever tried to email a digital camera picture to a friend, etc.
Morphing Software
AT&Ts arguement is that it doesn't matter how fast your connection is, once your packets travel through the internet backbone, they're gonna get slowed down anyway. This has 2 major flaws:
1. Many many connections do not travel through the backbone. sure a connection from NY to LA will, but probably not from your house to your neighbors. AT&T only seems to be thinking about IPTV, but people are going to want fast connections for many other uses.
2. Eventually the backbone will be faster, and AT&T customers will be stuck with the slower connection.
Show me HDTV over IP that's at 1.5 mbps and I'll show you crappy HDTV. If AT&T thinks they can compete in the IPTV market at 1.5 or even 6 mbps, they're mistaken.
I guess the COO has never tried downloading a DVD-sized ISO of a Linux distribution.
Cablevision if doing a brisk business with it's new premium Boost service (2 Mbps up, 25 Mbps down) so somebody must feel the need for speed.
I wonder if anyone would notice the difference between 1.5 Mbps and 25 Mbps?
Only if you have money.
"" How about taking the safety labels off everything, and let the stupidity-problem solve itself? """
Sorry, I quit about 4 months before the WorldCom scandal. (March of 2002) Unintentional good timing, although I lost my entire 401k. Never invest in the company that you work for, especially when it's WorldCom.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
My home cable modem regularly exceeds 8Mb and based on the things I do with my time and connectivity, visiting my in-laws with their 1.5Mb DSL connection is like taking a nice swim in molasses.
Jherico
What can the average user can do to ensure his security? "Nothing, you're screwed"
For a fact, you don't know what you're talking about.
I've lived in several countries with national health, and they're uniformly underfunded, overworked, and have deeper chasms than anything you'll find in the States. Go to one of the major hospitals in any city. Ask how many patients are foreign nationals. The number will shock you.
Canada's health system is laughable. The British NHS is far worse. Only in Sweden have I seen anything coming close to the quality of health care available in the USA. No, I'm not an anti-socialist, rather a realist.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Actually there IS a huge amount of dark fiber. Dark fiber is not the problem. Lighting it up is the problem. HUGELY expensive. Then you need to upgrade your routers to handle 10 times more traffic. Again, not cheap. You end up having to redsign your network from scratch if you up the last mile speed that much.
Capacities of internet bandwith now are limited not by last mile users, but by the bandwith between nodes that are in place between users and the servers. And it is a lot more expencive to fix, than to give home access to fiber optics.
This goes way offtopic.
I'm absolutely in favor of covering all. To do so requires a different way of thinking, and personal responsibility that doesn't exist in the US. High costs are tough. The indigent or barely financially functional need a safety net that's better than what we have today.
Still, the Canadian/British models are uniformly awful. Ask them. They'll tell you all about it.
We need something other than what we have now.... but we have the most corrupt Congress in history to deal with, bought off by every lobbyist that walks by. Nothing will be done soon.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.