Being Distance Challenged

Jason Perlow of ZDNet posted his real world experience issue with DSL vs. Cable. That got me thinking about what's next to come down the pipe.

First some perspective.

He lives too far away from the CO. I can relate to that. When I first moved to the coast seven years ago I tried to get DSL as a supplement to my cable model service, more for the experience, as we all know cable is faster, both on how fast the installation takes and how fast the downloads are. No dice. The 17000+ distance from the Central Office (CO) gave me speeds about the equal to ISDN (144k.)

I even tried wireless from SkyRiver, gaining permission from the HOA for a dish on my balcony. The latency was so bad the dish went bye-bye very quickly.

Now my take.

This is why the fiber model works. And this is why Verizon's FIOS, SureWest (in Sacramento), Wave and others are going to become bigger players in the IT transport to the home game.

Still hurdles exist. Verizon requires you to use their SMTP server. Sorry, but a business person wants their own server to be used for a myriad of reasons, SPAM blacklists being at the very top. They also mandate their DNS servers be used. I have none of those issues with SureWest in my second home in Sacramento. I'm sure IT guys can find a myriad number of other issues with Verizon, but for now, Speed wins and Verizon vs. Cablevision makes their backyards look like the comings of a Soprano vs. other family style mob war in the making.

With DOCIS 3.0 coming from cable companies, there will be more speed both upload and download to the home. Tiered pricing is also coming. This is another example of getting what you pay for. I for one hope the higher speeds, better class of service and more rapid response to customer service issues come at a higher price. That way, the kids playing games at home after school are not on the same "pipeline" as those of us who work from home. Tiered service offerings can make a difference, but the challenge will be the telco and cable company, both of whom understand only homogeneous offerings, and seem to be challenged when it comes to more heterogeneous manner when it comes to CONSUMERS. Business for the Telcos is clearly better understood. If the cable guys can grasp that, the shooting will really get ferocious and the business customer will end up the winner.

Comments

[GeekNews]

Are you kidding? With Time Warner about to impose bandwidth caps and service levels staying the same level that have for over 10 years. (at least in my area) we are no better of today then when i got my first broadband connection 10 years ago.

Monopolies still control broadband and many of us have (1) choice in true high speed Internet. I am not paying more money for that same crappy service I am getting now.