DSL Woes

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Sat Jul 21 09:23:20 2001

I've got some doubts about the business model into which the DSL and Cable
services fit. Here in Denver, AT&T is the cable provider, and they make it
pretty clear that the actual data bandwidth can be pretty low in a physical
block that had lots of connections. The "phone company" (QWEST) offers the
intermittent-connection service that I have, and they offer a
persistent-connection for about $10 more per month. I don't see how, as they
have to support more and more DSL connections, they figure on keeping the
bandwidth at greater than 256Kbps in either direction, as they are apparently
mandated to do. Back in '95, a T1, essentially equivalent to 6 minimally
provisioned DSL links, cost $980 per month for the connection, plus $40 per
channel for the bandwidth. There really isn't that much more bandwidth today
than there was in '95, is there? This scheme makes them use quite a lot more
bandwidth than they used to, yet they don't get any more money for it.

How's this supposed to work over the long haul?

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "James L. Rice" <jrice_at_texoma.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2001 7:56 AM
Subject: Re: DSL Woes


> DSl won't be offered in my suburban area (21 miles from DT Dallas) until
> 3rd Qtr 2002, so I opted for ISDN. It was insanely easy to set up, it
> costs about the same as DSL, but it never goes down. The download speed
> is slower than DSL or cable, unlike most of the DSL or cable subscribers
> around Dallas, the speed is a constant. My brother-in-law, who lives to
> play TribesII or Unreal, has a cable modem that slows down drastically
> at night when everyone is home and online. I'll probably get business
> class DSL (5 static IP's and a dedicated router, 1.5mb dl. 384 up)when
> it becomes available here, but I may keep the old reliable ISDN as a
> backup anyway.
>
> James
>
> Richard Erlacher wrote:
> >
> > I'm not sure what the current status is, but back in '95 or so, we had
enough
> > ISDN customers to warrant a server just for them. Our customers certainly
> > didn't complain back then, since ISDN offered flexibility and performance
not
> > available on a DS0 service costing 5x as much.
> >
> > I was somewhat surprised, after attempting to get ISDN service here at my
house,
> > as DSL wasn't yet being offered, to learn that Emanuel Stiebler has ISDN at
his
> > somewhat remote mountain home. With all the limits on distance from the
C.O.
> > I'd have been the last to expect to get ISDN service so far from town.
> >
> > Nevertheless, if you have any questions about ISDN and the quality of
service,
> > I'd say it might be useful to ask him. Everyone else I know who once used
ISDN
> > has gone to DSL or some other level of service. My neighbor has a really
> > high-bandwidth microwave link to some obscure ISP and he tells me he's
getting
> > the equivalent (in bursts) of DS3 rates. I've yet to visit his newly
organized
> > facility, but with the hardware I've seen him bring in over the past
half-year,
> > I don't doubt his claim.
> >
> > Dick
> >
>
>
Received on Sat Jul 21 2001 - 09:23:20 BST