Naslund, Steve wrote:
That's simply wrong - at least for folks who do any work related stuff at home.
Consider: I've just edited a large sales presentation - say a PPT deck with some embedded video, totaling maybe 250MB (2gbit) - and I want to upload that to the company server. And let's say I want to do that 5 times during 12 >hour day (it's crunch time, we're doing lots of edits). BUSINESS CLASS SERVICE - You can get it but you have to pay for it. Also, not the average user's case. I know this. My support line does not ring with many (hardly any) people complaining about upload speed. Get over it, it is a provable fact. Is any service provider on here seeing this?
And that proves what? I expect people understand that large uploads take time, and don't call customer support to complain about something that comes with their grade of service. (Some of us DO, however call customer support when a promised 25mbps upload speed drops to 100kbps - which mine has been known to do - but that's something broken.)
On average, we're talking 20gbit/12 hours, or a shade under 500kbps, if we're talking averages. On the other hand, if I try to push a 2gbit file through a 500kbps pipe, it's going to take 4000 seconds (67 minutes) -- that's rather painful, and inserts a LOT of delay in the process of getting reviews, comments, and doing the next round of edits.
On the other hand, at 50mbps it takes only 40 seconds - annoying, but acceptable, and at a gig, it only takes 2 seconds.
Peak, average, whatever. Your local loop does not care. It does not have a "burst speed", it has a maximum transfer rate limited by the physics and electronics attached to it. You might want it to go faster and as a service provider I wish it would go faster because I would love to have lots of free bandwidth to sell you.
If you want 50 mbps or 1 gbps on your ADSL circuit I can't help you at all. In fact, no one can because IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TODAY. If you want gig Ethernet service at home break out your checkbook (and a shovel).
Umm....... maximum transfer speed is also dependent on how many people you're sharing a channel with (can you say PON?) and the traffic characteristics of the folks you're sharing a link with.
So, tell me, with a straight face, that "what matters is average transfer rate to the user experience."
Miles Fidelman Straight face on- The user cares if his average data rate meets his needs more than he cares if he has a high upload speed the once a month he needs that.
In my experience, you're absolutely wrong. People care most when something doesn't perform when they most need it. (By analogy, people suddenly find that they care a lot about how well there car accelerates, or brakes, primarily when they're trying to get out of a bad situation.)
If your bottom line argument is that you need more bandwidth for less cost, then welcome to everyone else's world.
No. My argument is that you're full of it when you equate peak with average performance. Miles Fidelman -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra