2 . 8 Bandwidth
"If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets." - Mel Brooks
Surfing the web is great over a highspeed line at work but that 28.8K line at home can be frustrating. For all practical purposes, the best way to increase your bandwidth at home now is to use ISDN. Approximately 80% of U.S. customers can opt for this approach. It will get you a 128K line installed for around $500 to $700. Monthly fees average about $60 to $100 for moderate use with an internet provider. It's far from cheap but it's not the thousands of dollars per month required for a T1 line.
Perhaps the most promising breakthrough is the push to develop the Cable modem. If we look at the time it takes to download a 10Mb file (say a video clip), it would take 46 minutes with a 28.8K line, 10 minutes with ISDN (128K/sec), 52 seconds on a T1 (1.5Mb/sec) line, and 20 seconds with a cable modem (4Mb/sec)(12). @Home, the leading developer service of Cable modems, will use a 10Mb/sec connection. The 4Mb figure is the lowest speed. People are talking about speeds of 27-40Mb already.
Prototype @Home Web page
The biggest effort to promote this technology is coming from Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the nations largest cable TV operator. It is creating @Home, jointly developed with the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture capital firm. A web site is accessible now, but it's not that interesting...yet. It is preparing to have video hosts that guide you through the site, as well as other high-bandwidth features including real time delivery and updating of content like the weather, news and other broadcasts. The @Home people have strategic relationships with both Netscape and Macromedia, which will provide a specialized browser and multimedia content.
According to information at the @Home site, the charges will be $30 to $50 per month for basic services.
TCI is not the only player in this game. Jones Intercable, a company based in an Englewood, Colorado, is deploying Cable modem service on a test basis in Alexandria Virginia. According to a Washington Post article of February 19, 1996, Jones is providing the 10Mbit service for about $30 a month. You also have to use and subscribe to Jones for your regular cable television service. According to one user of the service, "I heard that someone was moving to Alexandria just to get this service...He was a free-lance writer and really uses the Internet so he's been asking if there are any free apartments in my building."
Stay tuned for this one.
