AT&T: 15 Mbps Internet connections "irrelevant"

Edward B. DREGER eddy+public+spam at noc.everquick.net
Sat Apr 1 07:16:21 UTC 2006


MA> Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 08:34:36 +0200 (CEST)
MA> From: Mikael Abrahamsson

MA> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060331-6498.html
MA> 
MA> "In the foreseeable future, having a 15 Mbps Internet capability is

[ snip ]

MA> Is this something held generally true in the US, or is it just pointed
MA> hair-talk? Sounds like "nobody should need more than 640kb of memory" all
MA> over again.

I think the Comcast and "cheaper cable plant" references answer your 
question.  With "new AT&T" adverts, political lobbying, selling retail 
DSL below loop/backhaul-only, and consolidation costs, how much money is 
left over for last-mile upgrades?

Call me cynical.  I just seem to recall AT&T ads in US news magazines 
bragging about backbone size _and_ the large portion of Internet traffic 
they [supposedly] carry.  (I say "supposedly" because claims might be 
technically true, but misleading, when traffic passes over AT&T _lines_ 
via other providers' IP networks.  Shades of UUNet and Sprint[link] from 
years gone by, anyone?)

So... uh... assuming all three claims -- "backbone is bottleneck", "we 
have big backbone capacity", and "we carry big chunks of Internet 
traffic" -- are true... I'm puzzling over what appears a bit 
paradoxical.

The IPTV reference is also amusing.  Let's assume a channel can be 
encoded at 1.0 Mbps -- roughly a 1.5 hr show on a CD-ROM.  I don't see 
two simultaneous programs, Internet traffic, and telephone fitting on a 
DSL connection.

Perhaps the real question is which regulatory agency, or shareholders, 
needed to hear what the article said. ;-)


Eddy
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