August 1, 2005 4:00 AM PDT
Ups and downs of consumer broadband
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(continued from previous page)
the need for faster upload speeds. For example, SBC Communications announced in August 2004 that it had raised its upload speeds to 256kbps from 128kbps on its basic service and to 416kbps from 384kbps for its premium service. And it has raised upload speeds on its basic service yet again to 384kbps.
But for the most part, broadband providers have not raised upload speeds at the same rate that they have increased download speeds. For example, when Comcast recently boosted its download speeds from 4mbps to 6mbps for its basic service and 6mbps to 8mbps for its premium service, it kept the upload speeds the same: 384kbps for the basic service, 768kbps for the premium.
"We pay close attention to the needs of our customers," said Jeanne Russo, a spokeswoman for Comcast. "We think we have hit the sweet spot in terms of our upload speeds. But we will continue to pay close attention to what our customers want."
While most major broadband providers today offer at least one service option with download speeds exceeding 1mbps, only two--Cablevision and Verizon--offer upload speeds over 1mbps throughout most of their service regions.
broadband customer
Cablevision offers 1mbps uploads with 10mbps downloads for a standalone price of $49.95. A representative confirmed that Cablevision, which serves the New York City suburbs, is testing a 20mbps download and 2mbps upload service.
Verizon, which competes with Cablevision in some markets, recently upgraded its DSL service. It now offers 3mbps downloads with 1.5mbps uploads for qualified customers for $29.99 per month. Since DSL speeds degrade over longer distances, customers must live within a certain distance of Verizon's central office to get the upgraded speeds. Subscribers to Verizon DSL must also purchase local telephone access from Verizon to get the service.
Verizon is also offering faster download and upload speeds with its new fiber-based service, called Fios, which is currently being built in several states throughout the carrier's local phone territory. The lowest-tier Fios service offers a 5mbps download/2mbps upload combination for $39.95 per month. The service, which uses fiber directly connected into people's homes, can also offer up to 30mbps downloads and 5mbps uploads for $199 per month.
How fast, for how much?
Verizon's aggressive service offering has prompted competitors to raise speeds on their services in certain regions. Adelphia and Cox Communications have each announced that they're increasing upload speeds to 2mbps in targeted markets. Adelphia offers a 16mbps down/2mbps up service in Northern Virginia. And Cox offers 5mbps/2mbps and 15mbps/2mbps services in Northern Virginia and Rhode Island.
But for the majority of broadband consumers, upload speeds exceeding 1mbps can be obtained only by subscribing to expensive business packages. Ron Gonzalez pays $50 per month for a 3mbps/256kbps service in Burbank, Calif., from Charter Communications. In order to get the upload speeds he needs to share video over the Net, he said he'd have to subscribe to a business service that costs more than $100 per month.
"I resent the fact that they sell fast upload speeds only as part of business packages," he said. "I've been a Charter customer for four years, and overall I'm satisfied with the service. The download speeds are great, but the pricing structure is frustrating."
The gulf between download and upload speeds isn't likely to narrow anytime soon. Engineering a symmetrical broadband network is too expensive to deploy and maintain, said Glenn Lock of Adelphia. Uncapping upload speeds could create a strain on the network. But most important, service providers claim that the vast majority of customers don't need that much bandwidth. Many analysts agree.
"In a perfect world, symmetrical speeds would be better," said Mike Paxton, an analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "But only a small segment of broadband users really need higher upload speeds. Until we see a ground swell of customer demand, there's no reason for service providers to change it."
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are at the top of user's wish list. The issue is
that they simply don't want to provide it.
Read the terms of service for your broadband and
you'll see that just about anything
"upload-heavy", such as serving videos of your
kids off your home PC, is strictly forbidden. Not
that you can't get away with it, just that they
promise to terminate your service if they do.
Want to host a newsletter for your knotting
circle on your home PC -- verboten. Verizon goes
so far as blocking inbound port 80 so you won't
be tempted to run a web-server on your home PC.
The reasons are varied. The Verizon rep I spoke
to said that the rule against running "server
applications" like web servers, game servers, or
remote desktop apps was because 85% of their
customers use Windows and they have had security
issues in the past with Windos machines. Comcast
(who I have an account with) claims that too much
upload capacity would tempt their cutomers to
engage in questionable activities (like
distributing family photos and blogging, no
doubt).
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Not sure I agree that it is to expensive to provide a symmetrical service in DSL world. It's the net round trip that matters to the DSLAM connection to the COre and the Internet. If we increase this link from let's say a DS-3 to a OC-3 we can handle most symmetrical services within real 10-12K of DSLAM. Cost will also be reduced as networks upgrade from ATM to IP/Ethernet and GigE is the link to the Core & Internet.
be another television and radio medium without
high upload speeds. If the promise of Full
Screen HDTV Video conferencing (6mbps up - 6mbps
down) is ever to be reached we as consumers must
demand higher upload speeds.
The problem lies in the infrastructure. The
only guys who are ready for this is Verizon with
their FTTP connections. Sometimes coming into
the market late gives you the ability to analyze
problems of history and come out on top.
Currently the Cable Hybrid Fiber/Coax networks
can't compete because of their Modem
implementation technologies. Shared nodes
etc... I see Fiber as the only way to get what
you want. Now if only the Service providers
would allow Home users to run their own Web
Services such as a web site etc... That's my
complaint right now. Having to pay a hosting
provider to run my hobby web site is my only
option right now. That's when everything will
change.
We're so close but yet so far. I hope to live to see the day. Maybe flying cars will come out first...oh wait the auto manufacturers don't listen to their customers either.
Most of these ISPs would rather offer faster downloads that they know people won't/can't use than more useful upload speed.
Here is an idea though. Why not give somebody a choice of higher upload or higher download speeds. For example, someone with a 1.5Mbs connection has the choice of uploading at 1Mbs and downloading at 512Kbs or vice versa. I don't think ISP should allows web or game servers to be run on shared lines. You want to do that buy a dedicated line.
If they are worried about viruses/trojan spammers, I've always been a fan of strict disconnection policies for ppl who don't keep their computers clean. :P
This is strictly a business financial decision. by cutting the upload dissallows potential servers to eat up tremendous amounts of bandwidth (in relation to the average user).
Keep in mind the average home user on say Comcast takes up what.. less than .01% capacity of their potential. hardly anyone downloads 500K/S non-stop throwout the day. Most still just check e-mail and browse websites which are MINISCULE bandwidth. Comcast actually provides very little very fast.
Now, pop on a server that runs 24/7 and that user is effectively taking up 1,000,000% more bandwidth than that average joe. Hmm.. If i was comcast i would not like someone sucking up actual bandwidth. decreases margins. Its almost a whole small neighborhood of usage on one user. Delete the user, or dont let him begin this to start with. IE, the CAP.
When paying high prices for "broadband" you simply get the potential for bandwidth. Eat it up and see how fast they turn you off. You think Comcast cares if they change the upload from 4 to 6 to 8? No one uses it. They just look better for offering it.
I hate big companies marketing tactics. Give the people big numbers which sound good and charge em up. WiMax im waiting for you!!
And Comcast - charge a fair price, before its too late...
big issue is having the upload bandwidth at 90kb per "line". Add
to this the appeal of VOIP Video phones and their even higher
per line bandwidth needs and it's not too hard to see a real need
for symmetrical WiMax taking over a huge chunk of the last mile
market. Coming to a city near you in 2006.
You want more upload bandwidth, fine - but don't expect ME to pay for it. With a combined calbe/broadband/cell bill of about $160 a month, that's the ceiling. Any rise will mean somethings got to go.
You bet. There is no reason for this. No reason apart from greed. Pure and simple.
I console myself with the fact that spam would flood my mailbox in far worse amounts
- T1 info
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by BandwidthSeek.Net
October 17, 2006 9:58 AM PDT
- T1s have gone down dramatically in price over the past few years, however it's still more geared towards the commercial/business sector. I've seen prices as low as $299 during a promo, but the normal pricing is around $400-$550 per month for 1.5 Mbps of downloading AND uploading. Perfect for web hosting applications which usually require high upstream speeds. Plus T1s are much more reliable and stable than consumer grade DSL and Cable. You always get what you pay for and it's no different when it comes to bandwidth. Thats why businesses serious about the quality of their communications use T1 for all their internet and phone services.
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