Sam, I agree with your observation 100%. Given most of the oversubscription models in place in the industry, it is not even a matter of having cheapskate customers. "Internet access" (broadly speaking) is NOT very bandwidth intensive.
Filesharing, video, etc... is bandwidth intensive. Other than that, it's all overkill. Voice? 30Kb/s per line. Web surfing? 100K once every couple of minutes. Email? A brief surge of 100K a few times a day. For most users, 256Kb/s will provide the same user experience as 100Mb/s. People pay 6Mb/s connections for the same reasons they pay for faster cars, even though the speed limit is the same for a Ford Pinto as a Ferrari. Not an entirely apt analogy, but pretty much sums it up. Honestly, I'd pay a lot more money for a connection with nearly 100% uptime and consistently low latency...you know, like a T1 :). Having a "good quality" broadband connection would do MUCH more for business and Internet usage than having a higher capacity connection--after all, our fear of voice over IP is not that we are going to run out of bandwidth, but that the connection is going to drop. Our reluctance to rely too heavily on Internet-based applications, be it voice, video, or office applications, is MUCH more the worry that our Internet connection will be out right when we need to access it (or receive that important call) than the worry that "our tubes are too small and will get clogged". -Clint Ricker Kentnis Technologies On 7/24/07, Sam Tetherow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Peter R. wrote: > Mike Hammett wrote: >> 3 mbit is not fast. The US IS behind other countries, there's no >> point in whining about it. Yes, there are very substantial reasons >> why our numbers don't look as good as theirs, but there's no need to >> skew the system to make us look better... just solve the problem. >> >> >> >> Fixed wireless is broadband. WIFI hotspots, cell phones, etc. are >> not broadband (maybe the cell broadband cards). The reason our >> numbers are climbing is because this has been a problem for some time >> and we're working on fixing it. It takes a lot to change things like >> that for the third most populous country in the world. >> >> >> >> Perhaps it should be measured per household and not per capita, I dunno. >> >> >> >> The reason why there's less competition elsewhere is because what is >> present is doing a good enough job! Their telcos have delivered 15 >> meg DSL for years, while ours don't yet offer it. That's why cable >> is taking on so well here. It surely isn't because anything >> connected to Comcast has a good price point (DSL and satellite TV are >> both better values). >> >> >> >> ----- >> Mike Hammett >> Intelligent Computing Solutions >> http://www.ics-il.com > If they change the definition to 1MB, EVDO won't count and neither > will IDSL and DSL Lite. The numbers of BB users in the stats will drop > - the telcos will look like they have very few BB subs since about > 10-20% buy Lite (depending who you believe). So the FCC will never > voluntarily change the definition. > > BTW, in countries with deep BB penetration, the regulators are TOUGH - > as in the FCC Chairman does not have Ivan and Ed's hands up his butt > so he can talk like Charlie McCarthy. > > But ALL of that is beside the point. End of the day, YOU guys have to > find, acquire and retain profitable customers. No matter what the > regulatory or competitive environment looks like. > > - Peter @ RAD-INFO, Inc. > I know it has been brought up before, but I'll bring it up again, the majority of my customers are plenty happy at <1mbit service. How do I know this? The upgrade is only $10/month to go from 380K to 2M on my system, but less than 10% of my customers have opted for the higher cost plan ($40/mo instead of $30/mo). In fact if I remove business accounts from the equation then less that 5% opt for the 2 meg plan. What is even more telling is that 15% of my customer base is unwilling to pay $5/month more to upgrade from 128K to 380K Are we ranked so low because we actually only provide service that is requested by our customers instead of over providing? I wonder of the 14 other countries above us if their consumers were given the ability to halve their ISP bill for half the speed if they would be willing to still pay the higher rate. Sam Tetherow Sandhills Wireless -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Would you like to see your advertisement here? Let the WISPA Board know your feelings about allowing advertisements on the free WISPA lists. The current Board is taking this under consideration at this time. We want to know your thoughts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
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