Microsoft offering xDSL access

Fri Jan 23 02:47:21 UTC 1998

Hello,

This is my first posting to nanog, though I've been reading it for about a
year now.  I have somewhat of an operational question that falls loosely
into the NANOG AUP (which I re-read before I posted) and it's not meant to
start any flame wars over Microsoft.  I'm just looking for someone who 
could give me insight into this issue.

Today there was an article in the sci-tech section of cnn.com mentioning
that Microsoft was teaming up with Intel and Compaq to offer xDSL service
to the homes for a very low price.  They claim to be able to provide
Internet access "30 times faster" than regular modems.   

This may be very true, but I have questions about how the Internet
is going to handle a bunch of ordinary web surfers now demanding their web
pages at 30 times the speed?  Is there backbone infrastructure in place to
provide this kind of access on a household basis?  Where is Microsoft
going to find enough peering from NSP's to provide this access to their
customers?  I think it would be safe to assume that they probably have 
enough money to pay for peering with every NSP in the US and not even have
to resell their bandwidth.

I Have a T-1 to my apartment (yes I'm spoiled) and even though I don't get
my full 1.5 Mbps, I am definitely happy that I get much faster than 28.8
Kbps.  I  suppose most of the general population would be so thrilled with
even 256 Kbps out of their 6 Mbps line that they will think they are in
heaven and won't even think of complaining to Bill that he's cheating them
out of their other 5.75 Mbps they're paying for.

I'm not even going to ask how they expect the telcos to be able to provide
that kind of service on such a massive scale.  I live in central Minnesota
- predominently US West territory - and they have been providing T-1
access with xDSL technology for over a year now and it already takes 4-8
months to get a T-1 installed.  I hope that we won't have to suffer
through 24 month installation dates on new circuits because of a flood of
these new Microsoft surfers.

Thanks,

-Dean

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Dean Morstad                              Spacestar Communications
Systems Administrator                     A Division of Firmware of MN, Inc.
dean at spacestar.net                        9531 W. 78th St
http://www.spacestar.net                  Eden Prairie, MN  55344
http://www.morstad.org                    612.996.0000
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