Hello, This is my first posting to nanog, though I've been reading it for about a year now. I have somewhat of an operational question that falls loosely into the NANOG AUP (which I re-read before I posted) and it's not meant to start any flame wars over Microsoft. I'm just looking for someone who could give me insight into this issue. Today there was an article in the sci-tech section of cnn.com mentioning that Microsoft was teaming up with Intel and Compaq to offer xDSL service to the homes for a very low price. They claim to be able to provide Internet access "30 times faster" than regular modems. This may be very true, but I have questions about how the Internet is going to handle a bunch of ordinary web surfers now demanding their web pages at 30 times the speed? Is there backbone infrastructure in place to provide this kind of access on a household basis? Where is Microsoft going to find enough peering from NSP's to provide this access to their customers? I think it would be safe to assume that they probably have enough money to pay for peering with every NSP in the US and not even have to resell their bandwidth. I Have a T-1 to my apartment (yes I'm spoiled) and even though I don't get my full 1.5 Mbps, I am definitely happy that I get much faster than 28.8 Kbps. I suppose most of the general population would be so thrilled with even 256 Kbps out of their 6 Mbps line that they will think they are in heaven and won't even think of complaining to Bill that he's cheating them out of their other 5.75 Mbps they're paying for. I'm not even going to ask how they expect the telcos to be able to provide that kind of service on such a massive scale. I live in central Minnesota - predominently US West territory - and they have been providing T-1 access with xDSL technology for over a year now and it already takes 4-8 months to get a T-1 installed. I hope that we won't have to suffer through 24 month installation dates on new circuits because of a flood of these new Microsoft surfers. Thanks, -Dean ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dean Morstad Spacestar Communications Systems Administrator A Division of Firmware of MN, Inc. dean@spacestar.net 9531 W. 78th St http://www.spacestar.net Eden Prairie, MN 55344 http://www.morstad.org 612.996.0000 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~