On Aug 24, 2009, at 9:17 AM, Luke Marrott wrote:
What are your thoughts on what the definition of Broadband should be
going
forward? I would assume this will be the standard definition for a
number of
years to come.
Historically, narrowband was circuit switched (ISDN etc) and broadband
was packet switched. Narrowband was therefore tied to the digital
signaling hierarchy and was in some way a multiple of 64 KBPS. As the
term was used then, broadband delivery options of course included
virtual circuits bearing packets, like Frame Relay and ATM.
The new services I am hearing about include streamed video to multiple
HD TVs in the home. I think I would encourage the FCC to discuss
"broadband" to step away from the technology and look at the bandwidth
usably delivered (as in "I don't care what the bit rate of the
connection at the curb is if the back end is clogged; how much can a
commodity TCP session move through the network"). http://tinyurl.com/pgxqzb
suggests that the average broadband service worldwide delivers a
download rate of 1.5 MBPS; having the FCC assert that the new
definition of broadband is that it delivers a usable data rate in
excess of 1 MBPS while narrowband delivers less seems reasonable. That
said, the US is ~15th worldwide in broadband speed; Belgium, Ireland,
South Korea, Taiwan, and the UK seem to think that FTTH that can serve
multiple HDTVs simultaneously is normal.
