[luau] Broadband in Hawaii Notes

[MonMotha]

> 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


Part of this is telephone propaganda.  Your traffic still "mixes" with other 
peoples', just at a different point (DSLAM instead of local subnet).

Depending on how crowded your cable subnet is, it may be impossible to exceed 
the max bandwidth for the subnet given the caps on the cable modems. For 
example, there's like two people on my subnet with a cable modem, each capped at 
2Mbit down, 386kbit up.  The capacity of a DOCIS 1.x CM subnet is (IIRC) 52Mbit. 
  Needless to say, it is impossible for the two of us to starve the local 
physical network.  Therefore, the only potential problems are at the uplink.  I 
think RR indy has an OC3 to ATDN cinci and a DS3 to some place in Chicago (just 
recently added, I'm not sure about the actual line, tho they do insist that the 
ATDN link is indeed an OC3).  That's a lot of bandwidht (though everyone in 
northern indianapolis with a cable modem is on that link pretty much).  I've 
heard of people hooking their DSLAMs up to a T1.  That's darn slow.

Basically, you can screw up a system like this no matter what method is used. 
DSL just gives you a dedicated pipe the the DSLAM.  Where it goes from tehre you 
have little control over.  The only issue with cable modems is crowded subnets. 
  This can be especially problematic in older areas that the cable was installed 
in before the anticipation of modern digital services like cable modems and 
video on demand where LOTS of people share the same physical backbone.

Really, I tell people to take advantage of the trial offers and get both 
(assuming you can get the DSL without a contract).  Often, with the introductory 
trials, you can have both for the price of one for a few months.  Try out both 
and see which is better in your area.  I set a small business up with a DSL line 
at 1.5/768 and it works REALLY well.  Someone just a couple miles down the 
street had DSL and dumped it for a cable modem because it was horrible.

--MonMotha