(About 931 words)

The Future of Broadband Access
By Bob Hewitt, Editor
The Journal of The Computer Club, Inc., Sun City Center, Florida
http://suncitycentercomputerclub.com/
rsh1916(at)juno.com

This may end up to be a case of who gets there fastest with the mostest.

The goal is Broadband. Just about all computer owners want it. Many cannot afford it. But every provider wants to get the biggest share of the pie.

The telecommunications industry was in the driver’s seat first with dial-up. Then came cable as a carrier and telecom countered with DSL.  Up rose Wi-Fi , Broadband Wireless Mesh, and finally BPL (Broadband over Power Line). 

Pew Internet and American Life Project released a survey finding that about 55 per cent of internet-using Americans enjoy a broadband connection at home or at work. 
Since computers have overwhelmed the marketplace, it may be somewhat misleading to lump them together.

The goal of computer mavens is the most speed per dollar expressed in Kbps (Kilobits per second), Mbps (Megabits per second), or preferably MBps (Megabytes per second). The latter conforms to the standard measurement of file size and gives an operator an instant impression of the time involved in achieving a download or a transfer, depending on the speed	of his CPU or internet connection.

Because their infrastructure was already in place, the telephone and cable industries became the leaders in delivering internet resources to their subscribers at $10 to $50 per month depending on speed. But then came the advent of wireless transmission, commonly called Wi-Fi, with its short range signal providing access principally to portable (laptop) PC’s—a significant advantage to travelers who were charged a small amount for access.

Almost paralleling the transition from fixed telephone to cell phone, Wi-Fi  evolved into wireless mesh internet which has sparked a huge demand for municipal
wireless broadband. Fifty four localities, including major cities, are in the process of establishing or already have established such services. 

Tempe, Arizona established a wireless access network last November, covering 40 square miles, with an access cost of $30 a month per subscriber or $3.95 per hour. 

Manassas, Virginia became the first citywide Broadband-Over-Powerline site last October when it opened a 10 square mile site available to all at $29 per month.

Philadelphia has contracted with Earthlink to cover its 135 square miles with wireless internet service---the cost to Earthlink an estimated 10-million dollars and a cost to residents an estimated $20 per month for service. It’s assumed that Earthlink will amortize its investment by income from advertising. 

The excitement over wireless broadband in heightened by a comparison of download speeds available. The fastest of the three Wi-Fi formats now in use (the 802.11g) is 54 Mbps (megabits per second) or 7 Megabytes per second which is 18 times faster than the cable modems of today. Further is the recent approval of the IEEE 
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for the new 802.11n Wi-Fi format which may be two years before activation but could achieve data processing speeds of 600Mbps; an almost incomprehensible 75 Megabytes per second—200 times today’s cable modem speed.

At that rate, one could download 80 minutes of music in 10 seconds or an entire opera in 30. 

The wired communications industries are not unaware. Witness the fact that they have spent millions of dollars lobbying state legislatures to kill off community internet. Over the past few years, no less than 14 states have enacted legislation that bans or places limits on municipalities from building community internet projects. Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed a law last June that prevents cities from offering broadband if there are competing private services. 

There are anti-competitive issues at the federal level, also. Republican Representative Pete Sessions of Texas introduced an anti-community internet bill which would prevent any city in the country from providing internet access if a private company offers internet services nearby—even if the private company serves as little as 10 per cent of the residents.

Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada introduced the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act which would severely hamper cities’ ability to build and manage wireless networks. 	

In response to Ensign’s bill, Republican Senator John McCain and Democrat
Frank Lautenburg introduced legislation that gives municipalities free rein to offer broadband and would overturn state laws banning such activities. 

Now that President Bush has lent his support to a broad set of proposals to get every corner of the country access to broadband connectivity by 2007, it will be interesting to watch both sides welcome that goal as supporting their particular positions.

The big question for the public is cost. There have been no definitive publicly-available figures on installation and maintenance of the cutting-edge WiFi mesh application. 

Jupiter Research has estimated that the average cost of building and maintaining  a wireless network is $150,000 per square mile over five years. Bert Williams, vice president of marketing for Tropos Networks, which has successfully provided mesh based WiFi hardware in several locations around the world, says, “We usually talk in terms of $75,000 per square mile for our gear.” Adding the ongoing costs for backhaul and system management, he believes the total to be closer to $100,000 per square mile, while Sky Pilot Networks quotes $50,000.  

A long and vigorous battle is ahead involving the established vs the un-established. But one thing is certain.  Everyone is going to end up with a piece of the pie. For this is still early in the digital age and there is plenty to go around.

muniwireless.com   	   informationweek.com
zdnet.com 		   vnunet.com               
jupitermedia.com	   arstechnica.com
eetimes.com		   mercurynews.com
slate.com		   eweek.com
mistershape.com 	   S. Derek Turner

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.