[PLUG] let's get momentum for Portland...

Russell Senior russell at personaltelco.net
Thu Feb 11 08:21:14 UTC 2010


>>>>> "John" == John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> writes:

John> Google's goals are find for now. How much will the fiber be
John> worth when everyone needs a yottabyte/sec?

John> Suppose I spend $5,000 to get fiber installed to my house,
John> either through taxes or a utility charge. But the fiber must be
John> replaced by some new technology that we haven't thought of yet
John> in 20 years.  That means the installation cost me $250 a year.

A) it doesn't cost $5k to install.  B) you are paying $1k a year to
Comcast as it is and will until you die.  Consider the net present
value of that stream! and C) fiber doesn't really go obsolete.  You
can replace the equipment at the ends pretty easily and *bang* it
suddenly goes faster.  NTT in Japan has pushed 14 Terabits per second
over 160 kilometers of fiber.  Bell labs apparently has the record of
155 channels of 100Gbps (15.5 terabits) over a single strand 7000 km
fiber.

John> I love Google, but they ain't no such a thing as a free lunch.

But there is such a thing as egregious waste and gouging, and that's
what you are getting today with Comcast and the other incumbents.  You
can argue that they are the best *current* option, and you might be
right (if you leave aside "freedom").

Google is trying to bust up a logjam of inaction.  They aren't
planning to do this everywhere.  They want to demonstrate what is
actually known, that this is entirely do-able, to show what asshats
the incumbents are for dragging their feet so badly.  The natural
hunger and envy of broadband users will (I think and, apparently, they
think) bust through the logjam and actually get this deployed in
the US instead of just overseas where Americans can't see it or even
conceive that it exists.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net



More information about the PLUG mailing list