ts.gibbard.org [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:02:35 -0700 (PDT) Sender: owner-nanog@merit.edu Precedence: bulk Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu X-Loop: nanog X-Junkmail-Status: score=10/50, host=mozart.merit.edu X-Junkmail-SD-Raw: score=unknown, refid=str=0001.0A090207.46969CBA.007B:SCGAP167720,ss=1,fgs=0, ip=198.108.1.26, so=2006-09-22 03:48:54, dmn=5.3.14/2007-05-31 Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 25 On Thu, 12 Jul 2007, Paul Vixie wrote:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/12/1236231

http://www.thelocal.se/7869/20070712/

For those who haven't followed the links, the story is that Peter's mother, a first-time computer user, now has a 40 Gb/s Internet connection to her house. It is described as the world's fastest residential Internet connection. It was done as a demonstration project by Peter and the local city council "to persuade Internet operators to invest in faster connections." It goes on to say that "Peter Lothberg wanted to show how you can build a low price, high capacity line over long distances." So, I'm curious here. The only thing specific the article says about the price is that Cisco contributed the equipment, but there may be economies of scale that could make one end of this more affordable in larger volumes. Data transmission at that sort of speed is certainly a topic Peter knows a lot more about than I do. The thing I found more curious was the article's emphasis on the distances data can be transmitted over fiber: "The secret behind Sigbritt's ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometers apart, with no intermediary transponders." Does this make residential connectivity (or at least, residential connectivity on a large scale) any easier? Wouldn't residential fiber be expected to radiate out from neighborhood break-out boxes, or at the longest from a central office in the middle of town, rather than having some central point where enough individual strands of fiber converged to serve everybody in a 2,000 kilometer radius? So, Peter, are you reading this? I'm curious what the real story on the economics here is. How affordable is affordable? What should we be learning from this that would let those of us backwards people with DSL connections cheaply move into the modern world? -Steve