There is something that wasnt mentioned.. And this may or may not be important (and how you can download WITHOUT the last mile problem).. What is the upload speed? Was that mentioned? Sprint is a big investor in the motorola iridium project (cell&satellite phone).. They may be able to get some channels off that (or even off another sat somewhere, they dont cost that much to put 1 geostationary sat that would be able to cover all of north america).. Now those people (directpc, etc) claim super fast speeds.. But that is download only.. You can get '100 times the speed' downloading but you upload at 28.8/33.6/56k.. which makes it unusable for videoconferencing (if both people are on this it would be no different than being modem only).. Now I dont know how they would integrate all the services onto one pair, like the claimed, but that would certainly take a lot of load off the line, and make it easier to deliver this type of service.. This is prolly not a totally accurate guess, but it was something that popped into my head, and is technically possible.. ---Reply on mail from Stephen Sprunk about Sprint's New ION products
Given that:
A. Sprint announced they are partnering with Cisco for ION B. Cisco bought NetSpeed, an ADSL vendor, a few months ago C. Cisco just released the 6x00 series, carrier-class ADSL hardware D. Cisco's gear uses ATM over ADSL
One could assume that Sprint intends to run ATM over ADSL into the home, and provision all transport services over that link.
Internet access would have a PVC to the ISP of choice, most likely Sprint Passport (aka Earthlink?).
Long distance voice would be SVC directly into Sprint's core network, bypassing the 3.5c termination fee.
Local voice would be SVC (translated to DS0?) to the LEC or to Sprint's CLEC division, depending on regulatory status.
Video and other emerging services would be funnelled off into other Sprint business units as appropriate.
Am I missing something?
Stephen ---End reply -- Bret McDanel http://www.rehost.com Realistic Technologies, Inc. 973-514-1144
These opinions are mine, and may not be the same as my employer