Broadband Bonanza

Cable and DSL were never the only high-speed Internet game in town--it just seemed that way. But today there are more viable options than ever.

Michael Desmond

Michael Desmond is publishing director at Bock Interactive, a Web commerce development firm in Burlington, Vermont. He can't imagine living without broadband access.

I remember struggling to get broadband Internet access to my home in Vermont. It was 1997--a time when ISDN digital phone service roamed the telecom landscape like a dinosaur. There was no cable or DSL out where I lived. My analog modem struggled to reach 33 Kbps over aging phone lines.

I quizzed the phone company about the distance to the local switch, and weighed the cost of a dedicated frame relay connection from a local Internet service provider. I finally hit on an enduring broadband alternative--the DirecPC digital satellite service (now known as DirecWay). The setup was less than ideal. I had to bolt a small antenna to my roof to receive data from the satellite, while a regular modem shuffled information upstream to the Internet. But I didn't complain. The downloads were fast, and my employer at the time was footing the bill.

Eight years later, I'm hooked on cable. But friends who live less than 30 minutes away aren't so fortunate. They still live in a digital Jurassic age, victims of geography and circumstance.

To hear the telephone and cable industries tell it, my friends are in the minority. According to their estimates, 90 percent of U.S. households now have access to cable, DSL, or both. They may be right, considering much of the nation lives in or near large cities. Still, much of the nation does not. And even if everyone did have access to at least one form of broadband, a choice among several is even better.

The good news is that emerging broadband alternatives can help bridge the digital gap or make it so we're not all slaves to the one and only broadband service provider in our neighborhood. Moreover, competition among existing broadband providers is forcing companies to speed things up (cable has started to hit 4 Mbps consistently) and lower prices (SBC now has DSL service for $15 a month for folks who sign up online).

What options do users face when considering broadband access? Let's take a look:

Cable

Cable continues to be the most prevalent consumer broadband technology, thanks to aggressive marketing by cable companies and ample deployment of the coaxial cables that pipe TV and movies into homes. Speeds are normally top-of-the-line, as high as 4 Mbps. The rise of a standard called DOCSIS 2.0 means faster cable speeds and low latency, or data delays. This combination is key if you're going to use cable for applications such as voice over IP telephony, online games, and/or video conferencing.

Cost: $35 to $50 per month

Best for: Urban and suburban residences

Pros: Widely available through the cabling installed in many homes; good performance; data customers often get a discount on cable TV service.

Cons: It's shared bandwidth, so performance can slow down as neighborhood traffic ramps up; reliability can vary greatly depending on the provider and neighborhood.

Digital Subscriber Line

Second to cable in terms of residential use, DSL works over the copper phone lines operated by telephone companies. The phone company sends data signals at a different frequency than the existing phone service, enabling the two to coexist on a single line. While virtually every home is connected to the phone network, only those within about a mile of a switching station are close enough to send and receive the data service.

Cost: $25 to $40 per month

Best for: Urban and suburban residences

Pros: Works over existing phone lines; more consistent performance; better reliability than cable and usually cheaper.

Cons: Typically lower maximum data rates than cable (although several DSL providers are now taking their service to 3 Mbps); distance limitations reduce availability.

Satellite

If you're out in the sticks, DirecWay satellite Internet service may be your first, best, and only hope for broadband access. The service works by connecting your PC to a geosynchronous satellite, which links to DirecWay's terrestrial gateways to the Internet. Today's systems do away with the clumsy landline connections of yesteryear for upstream data. And while data rates can be acceptable (up to 500 Kbps), the delay introduced by a 44,000-mile round trip from home to satellite and back makes DirecWay inappropriate for gaming, voice over IP, and virtual private network connections.

Cost: $50 to $100 per month

Best for: Rural locations

Pros: Available almost anywhere; provides access in rural areas otherwise outside of broadband's reach.

Cons: Expensive; limited bandwidth; high lag times make it inappropriate for many applications; requires southern view of sky to find satellite.

Broadband Over Power Line

BPL takes advantage of the same phenomenon that lets DSL share signals with voice traffic--electricity travels at a lower frequency than data signals. Companies have therefore decided to offer broadband over the electrical wires that come into homes. Although BPL tests have been ongoing around the country, working deployments remain limited as power companies weigh whether or not to get into the broadband market. Still, cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio, and Manassas, Virginia, have BPL service. In Cincinnati, Current Communications offers service through Cinergy for $30 to $50 per month, depending on the download speed you want (3 Mbps is the current max).

Opinions on the prospects for BPL are split. Research firm Telecommunication Trends International projects that worldwide BPL deployments will jump from $57.1 million in 2004 to $4.4 billion by 2011. But Radicati Group analyst Teney Takahashi says bluntly: "Power line broadband is not going to happen."

Cost: $30 to $50 per month

Best for: Remote areas not served by cable or DSL, or any area poorly served by cable or DSL

Pros: Power lines are ubiquitous and reach homes not served by cable or by DSL-capable phone lines.

Cons: Not widely deployed; significant issues with the data signal producing broadcast interference; power companies lack the service bundling advantages of phone or cable providers.

WiMax and Fixed Wireless

The wait for WiMax (also known as 802.16) continues, but the early returns are very promising. WiMax is the long-distance, up-to-30-mile version of WiFi. Cities and corporations are already deploying the wireless technology to pipe data to local networks and meshed WiFi hotspots. While mobile WiMax (think wireless Internet access on your PDA as you roam around a city) remains a work in progress, the fixed version (think wireless broadband to your home PC) has been approved, and companies are making products.

For the time being, WiMax will be a technology that works in the background, serving data to local wireless or wired connections in remote areas. Users can look forward to getting WiMax broadband right to their PCs in 2007 or so, as efforts by Intel and other manufacturers seed the market with affordable WiMax receivers.

In the meantime, wireless broadband remains the province of a smattering of fixed wireless Internet service providers, such as Roadstar Internet in suburban Washington, D.C. So-called WISPs, which normally serve a few thousand homes or less, offer broadband over unlicensed radio waves through transmitters attached to water towers, cell towers, or other infrastructure. Fixed wireless is often more expensive and slower than other broadband service (Roadstar's basic consumer plans costs $59 per month for up to 1 Mbps), but many users who can't get cable or DSL often opt for it over satellite.

Cost: WiMax, unknown; fixed wireless, $50 to $60 per month (plus $100 to $250 setup fee)

Best for: Rural settings not served by cable or DSL; eventually WiMax could serve just about anyone

Pros: Flexible because there's no wired connection; WiMax will provide ample bandwidth and range; fixed wireless normally offers good service because subscribers are few.

Cons: WiMax is yet to be significantly deployed; client adapters for direct WiMax access remain prohibitively expensive; fixed wireless can be slow and expensive, and once new broadband options arrive, the providers could be out of business.

Fiber Optics

Fiber to the premises, or FTTP, could remake the broadband landscape. With DSL lagging behind cable, phone companies have decided to unlock the potential of all the fiber optic lines that were stuck in the ground during the Internet boom. Verizon, for one, is slowly rolling out its Fios service, which promises up to a remarkable 30 Mbps in download speeds (if you pay $200 a month, that is). Still, for about $50--roughly what you might pay for cable--Verizon Fios offers 15 Mbps (2 Mbps upstream, from your home to the Internet).

SBC is also rolling out fiber service, but not all of it will go straight to the home. Its Project Lightspeed calls for fiber connections as far as the neighborhood where copper already goes into homes (called fiber to the node). But in new neighborhoods served by SBD, the company plans to lay fiber lines right into houses.

It all sounds promising--and significantly ratchets up the speed of consumer broadband--but the cost of dragging fiber optic lines into every home means that availability will almost certainly be limited for years to come.

Cost: About $50 per month

Best for: Homes that can get it and don't like their cable provider

Pros: Outstanding performance; high reliability.

Cons: Limited availability; requires costly infrastructure upgrades; replaces your copper wires.

Cellular

Cellular providers and industry pundits have been crooning about advanced, 3G cellular data services for years. High-speed cellular Internet access is finally here, but coverage remains limited to specific areas. Verizon Wireless for instance, touts its $80 monthly BroadbandAccess plan, which promises downstream data rates of 400 to 700 Kbps in about 30 metro areas. Upstream data (from your PC to the Internet) moves at about 50 Kbps, according to the company. Ultimately, you'll need to check with cellular providers to see which services and technologies are offered in your area.

Cost: $30 to $80 per month

Best for: Mobile devices and laptops

Pros: Highly flexible and mobile.

Cons: Expensive devices and fees; high latency; data rates lag behind traditional wired services.