Re: Choice of ISP

["Shirley Márquez Dúlcey" <user=15@nabble.blu.org>]

 Rich Braun wrote: 
> 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.