Comcast now touts unlimited gigabit service (that you can't get) Comcast has opened up its unlimited gigabit-a-second internet service to customers. Perhaps "opened" is a bit of a stretch: the US cable giant is only letting a handful of customers in a few select neighborhoods get their hands on the all-you-can-download service. Comcast said that the service, which will be the first to pipe …
That also applies to anywhere here in the States that the benevolent Google hasn't approached. IOW, about 99%. Even then, I doubt if anyone not in a major city will ever see this. I know folks around me but out in the sticks about 10 miles are living with either dialup or some sort of wireless that's intermittent has hell.
Comcast just jacked the rates for Internet-only here in Florida. For 50 Mb/s it's now $70/month. I guess we're subsidizing the Gb subscribers. And there was no prior notice. And good luck finding a way to dial back your alleged max data rate on their site. You have to call and deal with some overseas agent you barely can understand. At least I had enough sense to buy my own modem/router at the outset. Judging from the uniformity in modem ID's I see in my list of available connections (I live in a condo complex), most of my neighbors are renting theirs. Organized crime never had it this good. Imagine getting paid to rip people off.
Suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts here. My monthly $70 to Comcast buys a COMCASTIC "up to" 30Mbps. And that's AFTER purchasing my own modem (thus saving $10/mo)
Of course, they won't cut this price, only, eventually, bit by bit, raise the maximum rate (and probably introduce usage caps, which are "suspended" at the moment).
Broadband in the US is an expensive embarrassment.
<quote>Our Atlanta customers will be among the first in the world to enjoy this new Gigabit technology, </quote>
... apart from Japan and Singapore where 2 (two) Gb/s has been available since 2013 (JPB) and 2015 (SGP). These pedestrian 1 Gb/s are very much old news in countries where they've had such services since 20_10_.
Just sayin'.
I hate to defend Comcast marketing here, but they didn't say they're first in the world with a gigabit service. They said among the first in the world with this..technology. There are plenty of reasons to roast Comcast, without exaggerating what they're claiming.
"... apart from Japan and Singapore where 2 (two) Gb/s has been available since 2013 (JPB) and 2015 (SGP)."
And a lot easier to handle given their relative sizes. Especially TINY little Singapore. Call me when the average rates in Canada and/or Russia (probably the two countries bigger geographically than the US, and both have significant rural area) surpasses the US. Otherwise, you have to take geography into consideration.
Of course unlimited 1 GB service is only unlimited if you have all eternity to use it. Otherwise:
Shannon's Law says that the highest obtainable error-free data speed, expressed in bits per second (bps), is a function of the bandwidth and the signal-to-noise ratio. ... No practical communications system has yet been devised that can operate at close to the theoretical speed limit (Source:Whatis.com)
It is amazing how many ways the telecom industry has been able to come up with to imply that it can deliver unlimited bandwidth. In a way it's unfair of me to pick on Comcast. . . this is far from the most egregious example. For laughs, google "Infinite bandwidth" -Christ -band to get a sampling of the proposals to violate the laws of physics and mathematics. (The exclusions are necessary to eliminate multiple hits on a book title asserting that Christ has infinite bandwidth, and to a musical band named "Infinite bandwidth." Being a Christian, I try to stay in touch with the former. I don't recall that I've ever gotten any inspirations related to telecom, so I figure he won't be offended. I never heard of the band; they may be.)
I will cheerfully concede that, as any good lawyer will point out, Comcast does not actually offer infinite bandwidth. However I believe that touting this service to a select group of customers will almost certainly generate unrealistic customer expectations of what the technology can really deliver universally.
Wow, I've never seen such an utter misunderstanding of Shannon's Law.
It is not saying that you can't get 1 Gbps on a 1 Gbps line. DOCSIS 3.1 operates well below the Shannon Limit, and if you don't get 1 Gbps on that line it has nothing to do with Shannon's Limit and everything to do with oversubscription, network contention, and mundane stuff like that.
The Shannon Limit for that 18 AWG coax line is well in excess of 10 Gbps. How do I know? Because that's what they expect to be able to get 10 Gbps out of future versions of DOCSIS 3.1, once they drop the 6 MHz QAM channels and go all IP. And that's without going to higher frequencies, and without going to even higher order modulations (which require more computational power, but Moore's Law keeps helping us out there)
The only medium really pushing up against Shannon are satellite broadcasts and 100G base T (when it becomes available in a decade or so)
"Of course unlimited 1 GB service is only unlimited if you have all eternity to use it. Otherwise:
Shannon's Law says that the highest obtainable error-free data speed, expressed in bits per second....."
Your post is odd. You ramble on about Shannon, utterly missing the point of what unlimited means in this context* and then make the most basic schoolboy error of talking about 1GB service. We never use B in the data transmission world, we use b, because the medium is serial.
I think you need to back away from Shannon for now and perhaps read DC Green's Transmission Principles for Technicians. You need to improve your grasp of the basics.
*In this context, it means that you may use the service without any artificial limit being set by the provider on the volume of data you may download per month.
Those fleeing the USA if Trump wins have already been invited to relocate to Cape Breton.
Ref 1) http://cbiftrumpwins.com (it's been in the news lately, Pres. Obama even noted it)
I'll point out that FibreOP (fiber-optic to the home) internet service (up to Gb, always unlimited, great backhaul infrastructure) is available in many areas of Nova Scotia, including parts of the very same Cape Breton island (an island, but linked by a causeway).
Ref. 2) http://www.bellaliant.ca/fibreop-available-areas (select Nova Scotia, Cape Breton is the bit at the top).
Also, Canada has a really cool young Liberal PM. Enlightened. Freshly elected.
This has got Win-Win written all over it.
You know what to do.
:-)
Really kinda put's the Internet decide into sharp relief whe n as a European pay on the magnitude of <50€'s for Internet & Telephone. Yeah it's only a 5MB down 1MB up (for now), but it's plenty fast enough for my needs. But the prices they have to fork out for Cable over there are flabergasting. Kinda makes you wonder who they want to sell their service to, when mosrt 'Merikans either work at the local Bugershack or the Wallmarket.
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