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It appears I was incorrect about cable
modems. I humbly apologize to the group. I thought that cable modems
were digital at least out to the street.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 2:34 PM
Subject: broadband clarification
Alright, for all of you who decided to lecture me
on the definition of broadband and it's meaning in strict engineering terms,
allow me to clarify (especially for the snotty ones).
First off, words can have more than one meaning and
that meaning should be taken in context. For example; I'm sure that none
of you really think that a cable modem is a modem since it doesn't do AD/DA
conversion but we all understand that it's simply a device used to connect a
customer to a provider. After all "cable modem" is nothing more than a
marketing term so that customers have a rough understanding of what the device
does (not that they always understand that either).
When I chose to use the term broadband as a
reference point for my survey, I mistakenly thought that your brains would parse
that out to mean "an minimum acceptable level of bandwidth for consumer internet
traffic". If you consider that to be current DSL/Cable speeds fine.
If you take that to mean some future technology using quantum mechanics
fine.
So, if you're going to lecture me on the definition
of bandwidth then please stop using the term modem unless you're talking about
an actual modem device.
The question then remains: What (in your opinion) constitutes
broadband according to the services that have been promised to consumers but not
yet delivered?
Yes, I understand that it's not just speed, but
take everything else into account when you consider the minimum
speed.
Feel free to be immature enough to flame me for my
lecture.
Larry Diffey
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