In a message written on Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 08:24:17PM -0500, Frank Bulk wrote:
The reality is that copper-based internet access technologies: dial-up, DSL, and cable modems have made the design-based trade off that there is substantially more downstream than upstream. With North American DOCSIS-based cable modem deployments there is generally a 6 MHz wide band at 256 QAM while the upstream is only 3.2 MHz wide at 16 QAM (or even QPSK). Even BPON and GPON follow that same asymmetrical track. And the reality is that most residential internet access patterns reflect that (whether it's a cause or contributor, I'll let others debate that).
Having now seen the cable issue described in technical detail over and over, I have a question. At the most recent Nanog several people talked about 100Mbps symmetric access in Japan for $40 US. This leads me to two questions: 1) Is that accurate? 2) What technology to the use to offer the service at that price point? 3) Is there any chance US providers could offer similar technologies at similar prices, or are there significant differences (regulation, distance etc) that prevent it from being viable? -- Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/ Read TMBG List - tmbg-list-request@tmbg.org, www.tmbg.org