February 2001

Broadband And The 'Burbs

BY ROBERT VAHID HASHEMIAN

While most of the world was transfixed on the U.S. presidential court battles, I was following the latest developments on the International Space Station (ISS). The other weekend while I was at work finishing up a project, I had the Real Video window on my monitor showing the live coverage of the deployment of solar panels. As fascinating as the space-walk was, it was perhaps equally fascinating that I was watching this event -- taking place 250 miles above my head -- live on a four square-inch window on my computer monitor.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to do the same from home. For the past two years I have been awaiting the arrival of broadband in my suburban neighborhood. Living about 50 miles north of New York City, I figured it wouldn't be long before my neighborhood was hooked up to high-speed access. No such luck. My phone company tells me that DSL service is due in about 3 months. Worse, my cable company is talking one whole year before they can get me in the fast lane. And worse yet, I can only get about 20 Kbps with my dialup connection (my punishment for living in the woods). Try doing Internet telephony at that speed.

By some 1998 estimates, about half of U.S. households were supposed to be broadband capable by the end of 2000. It is painfully obvious that we are far below that estimate. In 1998 there were several promising new technologies that were supposed to accelerate the time to widespread broadband access: xDSL, cable, fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite. Unfortunately, not all of these technologies have fully panned out quite yet. Of them, only DSL and cable have made substantial inroads. Estimates proclaim that by the end of 2000, four million cable modems and three million DSL modems will have been installed across the U.S. Cable, while it carries the stigma of bandwidth sharing, has outstripped DSL installations, due partially to the fact that most homes are already wired for cable, and they require little effort to receive data on the same line. In the case of DSL, however, some rewiring or hardware changes may be required. Moreover, the CO (central office) must be located within 18,000 feet of the service location for the broadband service to be at acceptable levels. There are also some suggestions that the line quality used in some suburban neighborhoods is not up to the task of handling DSL.

The jury is still out on which technology will win in the end. There are indications that DSL service has picked up steam and may indeed overtake cable within a year or two. But for many people who have chosen to live in the suburbs, getting broadband service has simply been out of the question. While city dwellers are enjoying their choice of DSL, cable, and increasingly, fixed wireless, suburbia (at least in some parts) seems to have been given a low priority for high-bandwidth installation.

At this stage of the game I have pretty much given up on wireline technologies. Currently some wireless services support bandwidths as high as 200 Kpbs with good penetration through buildings. Other wireless technologies on the horizon boast of speeds of 1 Mbps and more. Unfortunately, such services are still woefully restricted in terms of their coverage area. Hopefully, by the time either DSL or cable makes it to my doorstep, wireless ISPs would afford me choice as well. I have lots of Internet telephony calls to make, and lots of space events to watch.

I just hope to get decent bandwidth before we colonize Mars. 

Robert Vahid Hashemian provides us with a healthy dose of reality every other month in his Reality Check column. Robert currently holds the position of Director for TMCnet.com -- your online resource for CTI, Internet telephony, and call center solutions. He can be reached at rhashemian@tmcnet.com.

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