[luau] Broadband in Hawaii Notes

Matt Darnell mdarnell at servpac.com
Mon May 26 16:37:00 PDT 2003


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Warren Togami" <warren at togami.com>
To: <luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 3:40 PM
Subject: [luau] Broadband in Hawaii Notes


> Disclaimer: I have no financial interests in Time Warner or any of the
> companies that I mention.  These are purely my observations from what I
> have seen, and public information available on websites.   I may be
> slightly biased because I had RoadRunner cable modem for many years.
> Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of the following facts:
>
> http://oceanic.com/
> (Click Internet)
>
> RoadRunner
> ==========
> ~$45/month normally
> ~$50/month if you don't subscribe to cable television
> $22.95/month for 3 months current promotion
> $50 setup
> 2,000kbit/sec download
> 384kbit/sec upload
> Works great with Linux with simple DHCP.
>
> Earthlink Broadband
> ===================
> $41.95/month normally
> $29.95/month for 6 months current promotion
> $100 setup
> 2,000kbit/sec download
> 384kbit/sec upload
> Includes unlimited Earthlink dialup service
> I am told that that it works great with Linux.  We have opened access to
> Earthlink Broadband Hawaii to Videl too.
>
> Verizon DSL
> ===========
> $34.95/month normally
> $29.95/month for 3 months current promotion
> $29.95/month if you have Verizon local and long distance phone service
> Their website seems to hide the data rates, I'm guessing because they
> can't be competitive if they tell the customer the truth about their
> relative speeds compared to the advertised data rates of cable.  This is
> just my opinion though.
> I have no idea if this ISP is Linux friendly.  They seem to be proud
> about the included access to MSN8.  I have no idea if they have the
> hassle of PPPoE, client-id or other hoops you have to jump through to
> get Linux working.
>
> Flex DSL
> ========
> http://www.flex.com/adsl/
> $63.49/month for 768k/128k
> $69.99/month for 768k/384k
> $93.99/month for 768k/768k
> I would list several other DSL providers here, but it appears that
> Verizon successfully leveraged their monopoly control over the lines,
> causing the line charge alone to be above their own DSL service price.
> Perhaps the only real benefit of this Flex DSL is the static IP and
> cheaper than RR prices for greater than 384k upload.
>
> RoadRunner Enterprise
> =====================
> http://oceanic.com/ (Click on Internet, RoadRunner, Business)
> $79.95/month "Small Business" rate, same thing as residential
> $129.95/month "Business" 3Mbps/384Kbps with static IP
> $179.95/month "Corporate" 3Mbps/768kbps with 5 static IPs
> $199.95/month "Enterprise" 3Mbps/1Mbps with 5 static IPs
> $249.95/month "Enterprise Plus" 3Mbps/1.5Mbps with 13 static IPs
>
> Pretty good deal compared to T1 prices, although I suspect CIR is well
> below 100%.  Probably good if you need higher upload rate and/or static
> IPs.
>
> Summary:
> Mainly due to the technology, it is my opinion that DSL has a difficult
> time being competitive in price/speed ratio with cable modem.  I suspect
> that Verizon is using a low price on their DSL plan along with hiding
> their true data rates in an attempt to appear competitive with cable,
> while at the same time make it difficult for competing DSL providers to
> survive.
>
> I personally have been happy with my RoadRunner cable service for many
> years... maybe 5 years now.  Based upon some e-mails from other people
> it seems that Earthlink is roughly equivalent and friendly to Linux
> users too, only simple DHCP to connect.
>
> Any Verizon DSL users can comment if simple DHCP from Linux works, or
> must you use PPPoE or client-id to make it work?
>
> Other Options
> =============
> As for other competition in town, there appears to be a wireless
> Internet provider http://wow.hi.net.  I haven't seen their service so I
> can't comment on quality, speed or security.  Has anyone used this or
> other wireless ISPs?
>
> I also heard something about Hawaiian Electric currently in residential
> testing of powerline Internet.  I am unable to find any information
> about this on their website, so I don't know anything about the
> technology, prices or speed.  Does anyone have any information about
> this?
>
> Warren Togami
> warren at togami.com


What DSL offers over cable is a consistant throughput.  I know there is no
CIR with DSL but all of our tests and outside sources have indicated that
cable burts higher but DSL is more staeady.  I always recommend people to
get cable and home and DSL at work.

-Matt




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