Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem isn't the variable cost; it's the $2,000 truck roll per customer.
I'd be fine with a wireless last mile to avoid cable messiness.
Wireless gigabit? Does not compute.
Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
111–120 of 152 posts
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
The way Google throws products on the market to increase competition for the benefit of its core products ... it's genius. Are there any other companies that do this?
Yes, tons. See "commoditize your complements". Microsoft is a master of this as well. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html
I don't know of any real market changers from microsoft, save IE, which was an attempt to kill competition and preserve market. Maybe I am too far from the microsoft circle to know of any...
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#113Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Did you hear that? It sounded as if millions of hollywood executives suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced...
The sad thing is that hollywood execs are scared by news like this when they should be looking at it as an opportunity. The ability to download a full HD movie in <5 minutes opens up a treasure trove of revenue possibilities. It makes content delivery much more convenient and thus much more compelling for customers.
Companies like sony have much capital tied up in movie theaters right? This would be a negative impact to those revenue generation mechanisms.
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem isn't the variable cost; it's the $2,000 truck roll per customer.
$2000? citation needed.
http://www.ftthcouncil.org/en/knowledge-center/legislative-r...
Apparently it's down to ~$1,000 if you assume 100% take rate and don't attempt to serve rural areas, but it will easily exceed $2,000 in realistic deployments.
In Utah if you're willing to pay for your fiber upfront it's only $3,000. And then you still have to pay the monthly fee for Internet access on top of that. http://www.app-rising.com/2009/11/utopia_proving_new_option_...
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#115Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Did you hear that? It sounded as if millions of hollywood executives suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced...
I thought the "download" part was funny too. 1g is as fast as many people's laptop hard drives anyway, so local storage is pretty much pointless.
Local storage still matters since bandwidth is not the only thing people care about: http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/rants/Latency.html
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#116Forget 5 minutes for a full feature film. If you are getting 1gb/sec., you will be able to download a BlueRay movie in 30-60 sec.
The speeds are 1 gigabit connections. The Dark Knight Blu Ray was approx. 35GiB. At 1 gigabit connections speed it would take 280 seconds in a best case scenario.
That doesn't account for any network overhead and assumes the storage medium can write > 125MiB/s (Pretty much discounting all standard platter drives)
The 5-10 minute figure is reasonable.
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#117Linking this news to what i read an year ago about google criticizing the router manufacturer for their lousy equipments(performance and both hw/sw quality) i just wonder from who they will buy their optical equipments...
Sadly they are not an hw company, so no google router anytime soon.
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your revenue is what you get paid every month by your subscribers, and your cost is your total mileage of fiber (plus switching equipment, upstream connection, etc.), then the more subscribers you have per mile of fiber in the ground, the higher your net income. More saliently, the justification most often trotted out when US consumers complain about being so ill-served by broadband providers is the higher populat…
Ah, I was stupidly neglecting the profits from subscribers after the infrastructure was in place. However, wouldn't this run counter to the OP's argument that it's the free market economics preventing this from happening? With the greater profits available afterwards, why wouldn't the money-grubbing bastards invest in it?
I'm not saying the reason for the US's poor infrastructure development is decidedly because the US has left it in the hands of the market, I'm just saying I have a feeling it has something to do with it, that it's one of the factors.
In Sweden, government policy and government subsidies have ensured widespread broadband coverage, not just in major cities, but in large but sparsely populated areas as well. This is true for both internet infrastructure as well as mobile networks. It hasn't been squarely up to the market to decide which areas deserve high capacity broadband and mobile infrastructure.
I remember back in 2001 when I traveled to the most northern part of the country to teach programming; Kiruna — the world's second biggest city by area, population 19,000 — had wi-fi network connectivity over the entire downtown area (which admittedly wasn't as large as it may sound). This was not due to the power of the open market.
In Sweden there is no such thing as lack of cellphone connectivity. Calls suddenly disconnecting does not happen. The only reason I even know of these phenomena is because I've heard Americans speak of it. And, finally, service is cheap, dirt cheap, by US standards.
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mass market applications that utilise 1gbit connections do not exist because the mass market does not have 1gbit connections.
But connections above 10 mbit/sec exist in many places outside and inside the u.s.
Sure, my connection is advertised as 10 mbit/s.
At 7PM, I'm lucky to get 512kbps.
Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Actually, Norway and Sweden has a lower population density I realize that. The multipliers I gave necessarily imply exactly that: 15x pop. and 10x area => U.S. has 1.5x the population density.
I would imagine that non-uniformity of population (i.e., cities are high-density, backwater rural states are not) is exacerbated by the greater land area of the U.S.
Sweden and Norway has very non-uniformly populated areas as well. Don't blame your land mass, blame your telcos. They are screwing you over.