RadioBanter - View Single Post

February 28th 04, 04:54 PM

PAMNO (N2EY) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

Certainly. But running fiber optics lines is a very expensive
proposition, much more expensive per unit length than any of the other
utility lines.

It's already all over the place out here in the Principality of Radnor. And TE,
and West Chester, etc.

There's an optics cable running along the street here which isn't more
than 75 feet from me as I peck at the keyboard. And a half block north
there's a moose-sized optics cable running along MacDade Blvd. I have
no idea where they come from or where they go or what they actually do
but there isn't a drop to a residence or a business in sight anywhere.
I've seen Ma Bell "mobile labs" futzing with the things so I guess
it's for running phone comms between switching centers. Or something.
In any event these cables don't look like they're ready to duke it out
with BPL.

The really big cost is getting from the pole into people's houses. That's the
really big selling point of BPL: no installation, every outlet in your house is
a broadband connection. As if.

A lot of "cable" is actually fiber. But it makes no real difference; the big
probelm is getting into every overpriced little box made out of ticky tacky.
The cable and telco folks took their pain upfront.

And they can avoid more pain by *not* installing residential drops.
Install 802 dot somthing boxes on the poles every hundred yards or so.
Would work and would kick BPLs butt. The huge advantage wireless
devices bring to this game is that they do *not* need a connection to
the house wiring. Freely floating lappers, remotes, etc.

Hare and I touched on that when he was here, it's a classic case of
use it or lose it and it's not being used. I asked him how much ham
activity he knew about on 2.4 Ghz and he answered "What activity?".

I wuz there. And what activity does exist uses highly directional antennas....

Seems like we all forgot that most of it is satellite ops which do not
always use directional antennas. That could be a problem but a couple
MHZ wide AMSAT setaside would probably work.

btw, I came across some info on the Manassas thing. $20 month for BPL - for
the
first three months! Then it jumps to $50/month. On a good day it might get
up to half of DSL speed. Maybe.

Good. I hope they lose their skivvies on that deal.

They'll ask Uncle Sam to bail them out. "No millionaire left behind".

That would require Congessional action and it would never in this
world happen.

Didja see where RCN went Chapter 11?

I looked at RCN when it first popped up. Talk about no bang for the
buck, the Comcast and Ma Bell guys musta been laughing their buns off
at the RCN prices.

The cofounder of Microsoft put 1.65
billion into that outfit and now his piece is worth $2 million. That's like
putting $165,000 of yer IRA/401K in something and having it go down to $200.

Yeah and after RCN drubbed him Mr. Allen came out with 20 point
somthing billion left in his piggy bank. Pore thing. He and his buddy
Bill are tossing coin at all sortsa wild investment adventures. Their
baby airliner is a good example. They don't care, it's only money.

Cable here runs at around 3Mb/s for $45/month. The JAs have
a flavor of DSL which runs at 26 Mb/sec in heavily-populated areas for
$50/month with the HLs close behind. Manassas BPL for $50/month for
only half of 0.5-1.0 Mb/s you say?

Double check with Ed but I recall half MB as the best they'd ever gotten - and
that was for a single customer on the system. More folks = sharing.

. . . . more is better, bring it on . . .

They gotta be kidding . . ! One more dot bomb in the making . .

I sure hope so. Boom dot bust. But it ain't over till it's over.

It won't hurt very long . .

Yep. But that's not the big problem - the real 800 pound gorilla is how
fast the deficit is making it grow. A few years back we had a surplus....

Yeah, it's the rate which is really scary.

Not just a big hole but digging it deeper as fast as they can.

Check OMB's rant on the subject which was published yesterday.

I don't see shuttle safety being part of the politics of the upcoming
campaign. As has been the case in all major explorations since Leif
Ericsson's days and millenia before the folk who ride the things know
they didn't buy a seat in a 737 and some are not gonna come back.

That's not how it was sold, though. Ask the McAuliffes if they were told that
there was a 1 in 75 chance of augering in.

Sure they knew, just like the relatives of military aircrews know the
level of risk involved. Whether they accept it and internalize it or
not is another story.

How 'bout we just bag the whole stupid Mars camping trip thing and
first build a new version of the Shuttle then put Wideband on the
front burner as a matter of national policy?

That makes way too much sense.

In fact the really sensible thing would be a cheap oneshot big booster for
unmanned payloads and a highly reliable but much smaller human transport
system. Send the big stuff on ahead and the astronauts meet it up there.

The UAs been doing that for thirty years.

Hey - didja see where they're planning a space walk on the ISS where all the
crew will be outside at the same time, with nobody in the station? Didn't they
ever go to the movies back in 1968?

Was not the first time by any means and yup, it rained so they had to
duck back inside.

73 de Jim, N2EY

w3rv