(replying to a few different points by different people):
In general, I find my 30M/7M is not too terribly painful most of the = time. Do I wish I had more upstream? Yes, but not as much as I wish I = had more downstream. I think an ideal minimum that would probably be = comfortable most of the time today would be 100M/30M.
But around here, the best you can get is 50M/5M (cable) or 12M/1M (VDSL). The 5M upstream on the cable is also a fairly recent improvement, it used to be 1M as well - and still is for most non-"super ultra mega premium" tiers, I believe.
And perfect symmetry is not necessary. Would I notice the difference between 60/60 and 60/40 or even 60/20? Probably not really as long as both numbers are significantly more than the expected peak rate. But 24/1.5, a factor of 16, is a very different story.
And both those variables are the problem. The current service offerings have been carefully designed to balance existing technology and observed actual usage characteristics, leaving essentially nothing for future technological evolution to grow into. The problem is that if you make service offerings "significantly more than the expected peak rate," then there is no longer incentive for customers to buy more than the most basic tier of service. ... JG -- Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net "We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN) With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.