adam on Wed, 27 Sep 2000 16:29:40 -0400 (EDT)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [PLUG] DSL and Bell Atlantic


One note - 
Covad sent out an email to providers a while back stating that
in October they would begin rolling out lines using your existing line.
We shall see if it comes to pass.




__
Adam
adam@radioactivecat.com
www.radioactivecat.com
__
Endless Loop: n., see Loop, Endless.
Loop, Endless: n., see Endless Loop.


On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, William H. Magill wrote:

>    > > Is there anything specific I should know?  Services that shouls be
>    > > run  that are run with ip masq 5 computers on a dial up connection?
> 
> Andrew White pretty much covered it...
> 
> You'll never know now from the new Verizon marketing information, but 
> you CAN get Infospeed DSL from Bell Atlantic -- which is a tariffed sevice,
> and use any number of different ISPs.
> 
> I've had Infospeed Professional (1.6x90) with DCAnet as my ISP since about
> January, and except for the great ATM failure back in January have not had
> an outage.
> 
> DSL service is anything but "bullet proof."  It's a lot like Linux...
> really cool when it works, but not something that you can expect the
> average iMac user to comprehend, let alone be able to use. How well DSL
> works and the kinds of problems you will experience depends upon your
> physical location and what kinds of things are between you and the CO (ie
> the last mile). 
> 
> Most of the "RBOC" ISPs now are using PPPoE and no longer providing static
> IP addresses. This change started last November at Bell Atlantic, the ISP.
> (Which is, or should be now, really Northpoint.)
> 
> There is another factor to consider in the DSL equation... POTS.
> 
> Very few of the non-RBOC xDSL providers (and in very limited areas) offer
> POTS.
> 
> If you get Infospeed from Bell Atlantic, you can have POTS -- Plain Old
> Telephone Service - on the same line. If you get your DSL from Covad,
> you don't get POTS, you get a second "phone line" -- actually a dry copper
> pair, historically called a "radio loop" -- with no phone service.
> 
> There are lots of reasons for this approach, and I expect things to change
> over time, but I don't know how quickly. I suspect it will be several years
> (if at all) before the non-RBOCs offer POTS with their DSL, even if and
> when they offer CLEC service in that CO.
> 
> The main reason for this is because the margins are so low on DSL service,
> and the maintenance costs are high. This equation will probably change as
> the number of DSL subscribers per CO increases, but today the "fill ratio"
> is very low, making costs very high. These various providers can capitalize
> (ie sell stock) their "installation and startup" costs, but the operating
> costs are deadly.... especially since the overhead on the actual account
> servicing (dial-a-prayer) is so incrediby labor (and time) intesive. Then
> when they have to actually roll-a-truck to do either end user trouble
> shooting, or CO equipment trouble-shooting and repair, the costs go
> asymptotic almost instantly. 
> 
> And none of this is made any easier by the fact that there are always a
> minimum of 3 fingers pointing at the problem -- the "last mile" provider,
> Bell Atlantic is the ONLY option available in the last mile for the
> forseeable future; the aggrigator or xDSL supplier, Covad or RCS or
> NorthPoint; and the ISP, DCAnet, NorthPoint, and an incredible cast of
> other characters. There are situations where there CAN be even more
> companies involved in providing the sevice, each one intent on proving that
> their part of the service can never be the problem.  (Getting to and from
> the CO to the ISP's POP and to and from the POP to the backbone... etc.)
> 
> The only thing less reliable than the DSL setup is the Cable Modem
> environment. (another topic.)
> 
> -- 
>                         www.tru64unix.compaq.com
>                               www.tru64.org
>                              comp.unix.tru64
>                         
> T.T.F.N.
> William H. Magill                          Senior Systems Administrator
> Information Services and Computing (ISC)   University of Pennsylvania
> Internet: magill@isc.upenn.edu             magill@acm.org
> http://www.isc-net.upenn.edu/~magill/
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group       -      http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion  -  http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
> 


______________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group       -      http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  -  http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug