On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 21:32:30 GMT, "Jim Hampton"
wrote (with possible editing):
....snip
My gut feeling is that if someone is out in the boonies and they *really*
want high speed internet, they could go for satellite and have a decent
system. Yes, $50.00 per month is not as cheap as you can get cable or DSL
(at least in some areas), but it is doable and I doubt too many ISPs are
going to try high speed service where, even if they could subscribe
everyone, the average population density is 10 per square mile or less 
FWIW, I'm actively involved with developing broadband in the three
northern counties of New Hampshire. In addition, I run a small (7
engineer) computer consulting firm - we write software for mostly
European clients. We've used satellite since before it was available
from the normal providers, and in a word, it stinks. Latency is
awful. When we ran private links over Intelsat, we had reasonable up
and download rates, but the pricing was incredible - $12,000 per
month. When we used Starband (two-way satellite), the uplink speed
was atrocious (at 19k), and, again, latency has always been a major
problem.
We now have dsl and here we use sdsl. It's available from two
carriers, NCIA and Verizon. We think the pricing is quite high.
For this part of the State, we are considering a combination of both
fiber and radio. Third Rail, Terrabeam, and Motorola all offer fairly
reasonable prices on broadband radio systems, all the way up to
several gbps. Fiber is a natural on high voltage transmission towers
as it isn't affected by electrical transients and it isn't a conductor
to start with. We've obtained some funding so far for some
feasibility, marketing and engineering studies and are now looking for
money for a demonstration project.
To put things into perspective, realize that in Korea "broadband"
means 26 meg at less than $50/month, in Japan it's 20 meg at the same
price. Our goal is 100 meg at less than $50/month and that's in a
mostly rural area.
--
73,
Larry W1HJF
I suspect that BPL will go the same route; they'll try, perhaps, but it will
be in the cities and suburbs where they can make money (and they will have
competition *and* cause a lot of qrm). The low population density areas
will *still* not be served (except by satellite or, perhaps, dial-up).
As for president, I *still* like Ike!!!
73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA
---
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