what will all you who work for private isp's be doing in a few years?

Fri May 13 17:00:20 UTC 2005

On Thu, 12 May 2005 13:40:45 -0500
 eric-list-nanog at catastrophe.net wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 14:32:45 -0400, Joe Loiacono proclaimed...
> 
> > So imagine a residential area all pulling digital video over wireless.
> > Sound familiar? Ironically close to TV! (yet so different)
> > 
> > What I can't understand is why multicast hasn't just gone gangbusters into
> > use yet. I see it as a really pent-up capability that, in light of
> > broadband video, etc., is just going to have to break wide open soon.
> 
> Do any of the cable companies actually use multicast? A while back, I saw
> some programming information being broadcast out to my cable modem (I don't
> remember if it was multicast at this point), but with the DVR's out there
> now, my TV is just a glorified computer display anyway :)
> 
> - Eric

A number of video providers abroad use multicast video services - 
some over DSL ("cable" is getting to
be anachronistic) - I can send you some PR if you are interested.

I have heard that some US providers are / will be doing the same but I know no
details.

All that I know of are using it interally, for video distribution, and have no
plans to allow arbitrary outside multicasts inside. 

One reason is that they have existing expensive stuff to get the video to the head end
(i.e., satellite systems). The other is that they view their primary business model as
a gatekeeper (i.e., they don't want to open it up to any video stream - they want
content providers to pay for the privilege).

Regards
Marshall Eubanks

P.S. If you google on this, be aware that multicast also means sending two or
more digital video channels over the  air in 1 FCC channel allocation. When news reports
say that "station XYZ announces multicast of local high school football games," that's 
what they are talking about.