Aug
2007
The U.S.A. is willing to settle on DSL as a standard?
Today I was writing up an entry for TECH.BLORGE.com and it struck close to home on one of my favorite subjects: Internet speeds.
It will be difficult to talk about this without crossing over with my published piece, but at the same time, I have to be polite over there, here I don’t.
ConnectKentucky is an impressive initiative by the state of Kentucky to bring DSL connectivity to every corner of the state. I applaud this, and considering they were one of the last states to get power to every home, it’s to be saluted. All that being said, there are people in the United States Congress who feel it should be copied nationally.
Okay, let me say why this is good for Kentucky, but bad as a national policy.
Imagine you go out to buy a new computer and the sales person tells you that today, in 2007, you should just settle for Windows 98. Wouldn’t you look at them and tell them to go fly a kite? Wouldn’t you wonder why they are trying to sell you an outdated OS?
That’s what DSL is.
On a good day, DSL gets up to 1.5mbps, and while that may be good enough for most people, as a national standard it’s a joke. As I touched on previously, we are already lagging behind significant portions of the world in speed. I then went on to mention in another post that Robert X. Cringely on PBS.org has been discussing that at the rate things are doing, we will never regain our broadband superiority. At first I thought he might be overstating things, but now I have to agree.
I understand it would be horribly expensive to put in fiber optics in a nation of this size, but to build in obsolesce as the standard just seems like a silly waste of money to me. “Well, this is good enough for the country that invented the Internet, suck it up and deal with it.”
Personally, I think this is a horrible waste of money, far worse than if were to spend a ton of money on what it would take to put it in the latest technology. It is self-defeating and not-worthy of the supposedly most technologically advanced nation in the world.
Please make sure to contact your your state Representative or Senator and express your feelings on this subject.
Luis | August 25th, 2007 at 9:35 pm #
Yet another effect of the United States not having a federally-organized national policy on Internet development. Japan had one called “e-Japan” and it achieved nationwide broadband speeds of about 30 Mbps two years ago–a year ahead of schedule. America, being a lot bigger, would be more difficult to wire like that, but the Bush administration isn’t even trying. Can you imagine the Gore administration doing that?
A good general strategy would be to carry fiber-optic to the street, and then DSL from there, cutting most of the costs involved in F/O delivery. This is often called vDSL, and I am wondering why it is not being done more in the U.S.
Sean P Aune | August 26th, 2007 at 3:15 am #
Luis – Exactly. This is just mind numbing to me to settle for such an old technology as the standard our country “strives” for. It makes my brain hurt.
Luis | August 26th, 2007 at 11:25 am #
I suppose that an administration that pisses away federal funds on corrupt wars and massive giveaways to the rich to the point where bridges start collapsing and killing people cannot be expected to give a rat’s ass about maintaining high-tech infrastructures. Just give the Telecoms whatever they want and expect nothing in return. So, what’s new in this administration?
Frankly, I’m pretty surprised that they haven’t blamed the bridge collapse in Minnesota on Bill Clinton yet. Or have they, and I missed it?
Kelly | August 27th, 2007 at 7:55 am #
I am currently working on a ConnectKentucky project and it is for wireless broadband. They are not pushing a particular type of broadband. They are just wanting people to have a choice of something other than dial-up.
Sean P Aune | August 27th, 2007 at 8:59 am #
Kelly – the press release, and subsequent information on the national program, only mention DSL. I had wondered why WiFi seemed absent.
SeanPAune.com » Blog Archive » American Broadband Is “Terrible” | April 8th, 2008 at 10:59 am #
[...] When will we realize we are settling for not even “second best”, but really what is “third best”? As I’ve talked about before, instead of forging ahead, trying to bring the newest technologies to this country, we are willing to settle for DSL as a standard for “broadband” speeds. [...]