broadband clarification

Thu Jul 5 21:44:25 UTC 2001

Larry Diffey wrote:

> Alright, for all of you who decided to lecture me on the definition of broadband and it's meaning in strict engineering terms, allow me to clarify (especially for the snotty
> ones). First off, words can have more than one meaning and that meaning should be taken in context.  For example; I'm sure that none of you really think that a cable modem is a
> modem since it doesn't do AD/DA conversion but we all understand that it's simply a device used to connect a customer to a provider.  After all "cable modem" is nothing more than
> a marketing term so that customers have a rough understanding of what the device does (not that they always understand that either). When I chose to use the term broadband as a
> reference point for my survey, I mistakenly thought that your brains would parse that out to mean "an minimum acceptable level of bandwidth for consumer internet traffic".  If
> you consider that to be current DSL/Cable speeds fine.  If you take that to mean some future technology using quantum mechanics fine. So, if you're going to lecture me on the
> definition of bandwidth then please stop using the term modem unless you're talking about an actual modem device.  The question then remains: What (in your opinion) constitutes
> broadband according to the services that have been promised to consumers but not yet delivered? Yes, I understand that it's not just speed, but take everything else into account
> when  you consider the minimum speed. Feel free to be immature enough to flame me for my lecture.  Larry Diffey

My first "broadband" connection was a 56 kbps satellite link out of JPL. And, yes, in an era of
300 baud modems, that was broadband (and very expensive).

IMHO, "broadband" at present means bit rates > 128 kbps (2 ISDN channels).

I am, however, focused on the residential / SOHO market. YMMV.

                                 Regards
                                 Marshall Eubanks

T.M. Eubanks
Multicast Technologies, Inc
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Fairfax, Virginia 22030
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