SDRNews: We Have . . . A Winner
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We Have . . A Winner
by Andrew McCaskey
Slow Internet meets its Waterloo
Waterloo, Iowa isn’t a name that conjures up visions of “blazing-fast Internet,” but it’s about to get the fastest residential connections in the country: 105Mbps. Waterloo is no high-tech haven; more typical are the surrounding farms, the John Deere plant, and a massive Target distribution center. Cable operator Mediacom is changing that perception, though, installing DOCSIS 3.0 gear that will boost the top-tier 20Mbps speeds in town up to 105Mbps, the highest speed in the country.
Due to cable’s shared architecture, residents will rarely if ever see a full 105Mbps on their home connections. . If a modern cable plant has been properly installed, there is enough bandwidth that DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades require only headend upgrades and new modems, not extensive trenching and street-level work. The telcos, which depended on low-bandwidth copper wire for so many decades, now face a choice. To get more bandwidth, they can run fiber to the home (Verizon), fiber to the node (AT&T), or deploy new phone lines and rely on channel bonding. None is as simple or cheap as cable’s upgrade path.
Unless Verizon is willing to aggressively push the deployment of FIOS service, it is going to be very hard for them to overcome the lead that DOCSIS 3.0 provides. And very hard to plow that back into the rate base and get it past various state regulatory authorities.
On the other hand, it may be justice for 40 year amortization schedules of copper paid for 37 years ago that have enabled telcos to stay behind the times in comfort.
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