<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 1:38 PM, Adam Tauno Williams <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:awilliam@whitemice.org">awilliam@whitemice.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im"> </div><div class="im">
> Which has dramatically higher customer-per-square-miles<br>
> Probably a factor, but AT&T and Comcast<br>
> say they have fiber to the street, and then<br>
> twisted pair to the home. How much would<br>
> it cost to run fiber that last distance?<br>
<br>
</div>A LOT! Fiber installation and splicing is an order of magnitude more<br>
labor intensive - and sensitive to error - then copper.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Some more. It depends on the</div><div>kind of fiber. Single mode. Multimode.</div><div>The hardest to work with - single mode,</div>
<div>because of the tiny core diameter - is not </div><div>necessary for the final drop. Tools for </div><div>splicing fiber have been around for 30</div><div>years and more. I'll agree that it takes</div><div>a little more training to splice a fiber than</div>
<div>to deal with coax, but not dramatically </div><div>more.</div><div><br></div><div>The canonical cost for twisted pair to the</div><div>home has long been about $2,000, on</div><div>average. Much of that is labor. Had </div>
<div>fibers been run to the home or building</div><div>been done during construction, rather</div><div>than as a retrofit, the difference in cost</div><div>would probably be very nominal.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
And there is little or no benefit for last hop fiber; it will just be<br>
more expensive to repair or install. 100MBps service can be delivered<br>
over short hauls with copper.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Even long hauls. Comcast, for sure,</div><div>has the technology to combine cable</div><div>channels, to provide up to 160 Mbps</div><div>or so. I don't know whether that is a</div>
<div>limit of any physical kind, or just cost.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im"><br>
> > > Moffett believes the end of FiOS expansion means that cable<br>
> > > companies will lose fewer subscribers, starting next year.<br>
> > With Comcast cutting of analog service market by market I think the<br>
> > shedding of customers will continue.<br>
> To? Someone here said AT&T U-verse is not widely available.<br>
<br>
</div>Define "widely". Numbers I have been told indicate it is available to<br>
the majority of residents within Grand Rapids city limits and the<br>
immediately adjacent municipalities. [Note: "residents", not "area"].<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> I called Comcast late last fall and the person said it would "roll<br>
> out" 22 and 50 Mbps services in Q1.Q1 is over in a few days.<br>
<br>
</div>I have no knowledge of what Comcast offers.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> You can get a "business service"<br>
> at each of those rates, for a mere<br>
> $100 and $190 a month, respectively.<br>
> FiOS was about $35 a month for those<br>
> rates.<br>
<br>
</div>It would be very interesting to see real-world benchmarking of such<br>
services; but I've not seen any [you'd need to connect each service to<br>
the same place - which would be expensive - otherwise your tests<br>
wouldn't be comparative]. On the other hand I'm pretty confident that<br>
paying for "50MBps" would land squarely in the "waste of money" category<br>
as I doubt you will get any substantial improvements of real-world<br>
performance once you past 10MBps. You rather quickly run into<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Why 10 Mbps?</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
constraints [very possibly administrative] on the remote.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>It's chicken and egg. In 1980 I </div><div>had a 300 bps modem. A "Cat,"</div><div>with the handset cradle. Today</div>
<div>I have an actual 16 Mbps - under</div><div>many conditions anyway. More</div><div>bandwidth has always found uses,</div><div>and nothing I know says some kind</div><div>of optimum speed has been passed</div><div>already. Maybe optimum in terms</div>
<div>of bang for the buck using the old</div><div>twisted pair technology.</div><div><br></div><div>How to build a faster Internet?</div><div>One suggestion:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://omnibus.bobanna.com/akamai/">http://omnibus.bobanna.com/akamai/</a></div>
<div><br></div><div> -- Bob</div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
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