In a recent class session, a classmate and I were engrossed in a discussion about broadband technologies and why the need for older connection methods such as dial-up are still required. While there are many arguments about these topics, and even more opinions (f-bombs galor!), here's my 2-cents on what I see around the Inter-webs.
The main reason for US homes not having speeds like in Korea (over 30Mbps) today is the cost of the required optical infrastructure to support such systems to the house, however, that has been changing for years in many major cities and towns across our fine country. Companies like Comcast and AT&T have been upgrading everything here in South Florida to optical fiber cables for at least the past 10 years. Services like AT&T's U-verse and Comcast's Xfinity are providing speeds in excess of 20Mbps to the house, and popularity is spreading quickly among locals. This is due to the Fiber To The Curb initiative started years ago which states that optical fiber cable is to be deployed within 1,000 feet of a home or business (http://goo.gl/OHRHc). In many cases, as in my neighborhood, they are laying optical fiber cables under the main streets of newer housing developments and into sub-developments. The US's average speed of just over 10mbps is up over the past number of years, you can see how everyone stacks up to the rest of the developed world here: http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/.
What most people do not know is that the optical connections between the data centers that make up the public Internet carry information at speeds in excess of 50Gbps around the globe. Regardless of whether side of the fence you are one about the Internet's true available bandwidth being "unlimited," 50Gbps is something else. Comparing my super-fast 1.5mpbs connection to the US average of 10mpbs, and even Korea's whopping 34Mpbs+ to those speeds is borderline insulting. With 4G rolling out nicely, users are already seeing speeds in excess of 12Mpbs to their mobile devices - almost 10x faster than what I run in my house. And yet, the masses STILL complain about not having enough speed - heck, I complain too sometimes (I like my games damn it).
Someone else in the class asked why people still use dial-up in this high-speed era. That is a simple answer, either they cannot afford broadband for whatever reason (more than likely this fantastic economic cycle we're experiencing), or their provider does not have the budget to implement the proper infrastructure to support broadband data transport in their area.
I for one still use dial-up as a backup to my DSL connection when they have network outages. While it seems foolish to even admit to using it, I still remember when it took 45 minutes to download a text based page on a remote server on a 300bps modem and how cool it was just to be able to communicate with another computer so many miles away. We did not care how long it took to download things, it was just cool to be able to do it. I have the same feeling with my mobile, handheld, and gaming devices today. I play games and communicate with people on the other side of the world all the time, in real time, whenever I want to, through a piece of plastic and silicone, into a world that does not physically exist. I just think that living that concept is cool, no matter how you get there.
What do you think?
-Geek
UPDATE 11/21/2011: Since changing to Comcast, my bandwidth now averages 50MBps down and 10MBps up. With as expensive as DSL is for the low bandwidth, it seemed logical to change to Comcast because their prices are so low per megabit in comparison. Do your research, services like still use DSL like AT&T's U-Verse while enticing has a lot of service issues in my area. Most of the people I talk to regret every signing up for the service even though it offers increased speeds over standard DSL. Hit me up if you want more details.
