Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 10:15:40 -0400 (EDT) From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu> To: "Jacob M. Parnas" <jparnas@jparnas.cybercom.net> Cc: hardware@freebsd.org, bsdi-users@bsdi.com Subject: Re: your mail Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9607111001.D4490-0100000@zoo.toronto.edu> In-Reply-To: <199607110601.CAA01010@jparnas.cybercom.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> >...Note that the splitting is *not*, in general, over the entire
> >metropolitan area -- the cable company can and does subdivide. The folks
> >in the Rogers Toronto-area experiment say that the net effective data rate
> >did vary depending on load, but it was always a lot faster than phone...
>
> I thought that while it was pretty easy to add a new ISDN server, it was
> hard to add a new cable. This would seem to be a problem, especially if
> this was done in bulk...
They don't have to add new cable, just new boxes at the appropriate point
in the distribution tree. (As I think I already mentioned, the signal
distribution in cable is a tree, not a star, with the last amplifiers at
a fairly local level, out on poles in your neighborhood.) Especially if
everything before the final amplifier uses fiber -- which is, I believe,
the new trend, to the point where existing wiring is being converted at a
brisk pace in many areas -- the wiring is already in place.
> >> And if you have to move, you may be out of luck.
> >ISDN has the same problem.
>
> I thought ISDN was a bit more common and standardized, but I could be wrong.
Standardized, yes, but common... well, that varies a whole lot. It's not
something you can count on being able to get, especially at a reasonable
price, not yet. The bottom line for ISDN and cable is similar -- if you
really need it, that constrains where you move -- although the extent of
the problem may differ at the moment.
> Also, how much are the charges for installation, equipment and any monthly/
> packet/etc charges?
This depends very heavily on the cable company, the same way ISDN charges
depend very heavily on the phone company. In Toronto, Rogers is talking
about a flat monthly fee of $30-40 on top of what you pay for your basic
cable service (which they quietly assume you already have!). We'll see.
Henry Spencer
henry@zoo.toronto.edu
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.3.89.9607111001.D4490-0100000>