Re: Choice of ISP

["Rich Braun" <user=44@nabble.blu.org>]

 Jerry Feldman <[hidden email]> noted: 
> The shared bandwidth has been a fud for years. In the case of 
> cable, you share essentially an ethernet to the head end where you 
> connect to fibre. I used to have the ratio, but I don't know what 
> Comcast's ratios are. With FIOS or DSL you have a bandwidth to the CO, 
> but at that point you share with everyone else.  ... 

The DOCSIS 1.0 specification is 520 homes passed with a 6MHz channel set aside 
for data (38 megabits down, about 6 megabits up, IIRC).  Some providers 
improve on this but I'm pretty sure most of Comcast's network around here 
conforms to that standard. 

What it means is that if 30% of your neighbors subscribe to Comcast and 10% of 
those are running continuous download at a given time, then you'd have about 
15 people sharing 38 megabits so you'd get a bit over 2 megabits. 

Compare that with a typical DSL system in which a whole central office shares 
a DS3 (45 megabit) pipe among up to 5000 or so homes-passed. 

If you get a high-end high-priced DSL line you might be able to get a better 
uplink, but that's the only technical advantage of DSL over cable.  (There are 
obviously some non-technical business issues to deal with when comparing 
providers... ;-) 

The phone company realized this, saw the handwriting on the wall for aging 
copper wiring, and opted to pull fiber to everyone's house.  Eventually. 

-rich 


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