Hmm. Although I've never been to Western MA and hence have no idea what
the telecom situation is like over there, I'm certainly aware of quite a
few places in "first world USA" where DSL is still a fantasy, let alone
fiber.
As a local example, I have a friend in a rural area of Southern
California who can't get any kind of "high-speed Internet". I've run a
prequal on her address and it tells me she is 31 kft from the CO. The
CO in question has a Covad DSLAM in it, but at 31 kft those rural
residents' options are limited to either IDSL at 144 kbps (not much
point in that) or a T1 starting at ~$700/month. The latter figure is
typically well out of range for the kind of people who live in such
places.
That got me thinking: ISDN/IDSL and T1 can be extended infinitely far
into the boondocks because those signal formats support repeaters. What
I'm wondering is how can we do the same thing with SDSL - and I mean
politically rather than technically. The technical part is easy: some
COs already have CLECs in them that serve G.shdsl (I've been told that
NEN does that) and for G.shdsl repeaters are part of the standard
(searching around shows a few vendors making them); in the case of
SDSL/2B1Q (Covad and DSL.net) there is no official support for repeaters
and hence no major vendors making such, but I can build such a repeater
unofficially.
The difficulty is with the political part, and that's where I'm seeking
the wisdom of this list. How would one go about sticking a mid-span
repeater into an ILEC-owned 31 kft rural loop? From what I understand
(someone please correct me if I'm wrong!), when a CLEC orders a loop
from an ILEC, if it's for a T1 or IDSL, the CLEC actually orders a T1 or
ISDN BRI transport from the ILEC rather than a dry pair, and any
mid-span repeaters or HDSLx converters or the like become the
responsibility of the ILEC rather than the CLEC, right?
So how could one extend this model to provide, say, repeatered G.shdsl
service to far-outlying rural subscribers? Is there some political
process (PUC/FCC/etc) by which an ILEC could be forced to allow a third
party to stick a repeater in the middle of their loop? Or would it have
to work by way of the ILEC providing a G.shdsl transport service to
CLECs, with the ILEC being responsible for the selection, procurement
and deployment of repeater hardware? And what if the ILEC is not
interested in providing such a service - any PUC/FCC/etc political
process via which they could be forced to cooperate?
Things get even more complicated in those locations where the CO has a
Covad DSLAM in it serving out SDSL/2B1Q, but no other CLEC serving
G.shdsl. Even if the ILEC were to provide a G.shdsl transport service
with repeaters, it wouldn't help with SDSL/2B1Q. My idea involves
building a gadget in the form factor of a standard mid-span repeater
that would function as a converter from SDSL/2B1Q to G.shdsl: if the
loop calls for one mid-span repeater, stick this gadget in as if it
were that repeater; if the loop calls for 2 or more repeaters, use my
gadget as the first "repeater" and then standard G.shdsl repeaters
after it. But of course this idea is totally dependent on the ability
of a third party to stick these devices in the middle of long rural
loops, perhaps in the place of loading coils which are likely present
on such loops.
The Massachusetts Broadband Institute is currently working a middle mile solution to help with some of the issues in western ma. Thing do sound promising.
From what I've read, they may well get higher bandwidth out to the town centers on fiber. There has been little discussion of how to distribute from there. I suppose Verizon, the only company offering anything out there, will take advantage and use the fiber to improve speeds in the centers of towns. But there's no CATV in most of the hill towns, and unless MBI intends to stretch fiber out to the neighborhoods, I remain skeptical.
Today, most of the town halls have public access wifi, and people drive up and sit in their cars and get their email that way. This isn't a solution.
I had good luck getting my dad some form of broadband access in rural
Oregon using a 3g router (Cradlepoint), a Wilson Electronics signal amp
(model 811211), and an outdoor mount high gain antenna. It's not great,
but considering the alternatives (33.6k dialup for $60/mo or satellite
broadband for $150-$200/mo) it wasn't a bad deal for my dad when you
consider that the dialup ISP + dedicated POTS line cost about as much as
the 5GB 3G data plan does.
Speed is somewhere between dialup and Uverse or FIOS. I get the sense
that it is somewhere in the range of 256 - 512 kbps with high latency
(Dad's not one for much in the way of network performance testing).
> Better than western Massachusetts, where there's just no
connectivity
at =
> all. Even dialup fails to function over crappy lines.
Hmm. Although I've never been to Western MA and hence have no idea
what
the telecom situation is like over there, I'm certainly aware of quite
a
few places in "first world USA" where DSL is still a fantasy, let
alone
fiber.
As a local example, I have a friend in a rural area of Southern
California who can't get any kind of "high-speed Internet". I've run
a
prequal on her address and it tells me she is 31 kft from the CO. The
CO in question has a Covad DSLAM in it, but at 31 kft those rural
residents' options are limited to either IDSL at 144 kbps (not much
point in that) or a T1 starting at ~$700/month. The latter figure is
typically well out of range for the kind of people who live in such
places.
That got me thinking: ISDN/IDSL and T1 can be extended infinitely far
into the boondocks because those signal formats support repeaters.
What
I'm wondering is how can we do the same thing with SDSL - and I mean
politically rather than technically. The technical part is easy: some
COs already have CLECs in them that serve G.shdsl (I've been told that
NEN does that) and for G.shdsl repeaters are part of the standard
(searching around shows a few vendors making them); in the case of
SDSL/2B1Q (Covad and DSL.net) there is no official support for
repeaters
and hence no major vendors making such, but I can build such a
repeater
unofficially.
The difficulty is with the political part, and that's where I'm
seeking
the wisdom of this list. How would one go about sticking a mid-span
repeater into an ILEC-owned 31 kft rural loop? From what I understand
(someone please correct me if I'm wrong!), when a CLEC orders a loop
from an ILEC, if it's for a T1 or IDSL, the CLEC actually orders a T1
or
ISDN BRI transport from the ILEC rather than a dry pair, and any
mid-span repeaters or HDSLx converters or the like become the
responsibility of the ILEC rather than the CLEC, right?
So how could one extend this model to provide, say, repeatered G.shdsl
service to far-outlying rural subscribers? Is there some political
process (PUC/FCC/etc) by which an ILEC could be forced to allow a
I think a lot of people often forget that ISPs are actually businesses
trying to turn a profit. At my last job we built out a fiber to the home
ILEC in relatively rural Louisiana. This means that we had quite a number of
customers that didn't meet the density requirements for deployment. Using
made-up numbers for the sake of discussion, lets assume that a customer
provides $1/month for service. If you can place deployment in a highly-dense
area you'll make a lot more of those $1's per month with that investment.
When you start deploying further to the edge you really slide into the
"we're not even breaking even on this" market. Obviously anyone that has a
job for profit knows that this is a no-no.
As telcos deploy high-density technologies (fiber, metroE, etc) they can
pull the legacy technology (xDSL, T1, etc) and push that to the edge.
Unfortunately the edge is always going to get the hand-me-downs but it's
better than nothing. My wife is from a tiny town in central PA (the vortex
between Pittsburgh and Philly) and her parents have had dialup until last
year, when the local telco finally pushed DSL to their location. They only
draw 1.5meg but it's better than the 56k they were paying for.
Hopefully someone will bother to cover the rural areas with cell service eventually.
Much of western Massachusetts (by which I mean the Berkshires, more than I mean the Pioneer Valley) is not covered by cell service. Where there is cell service, most cell sites have only minimal data speeds. Vermont is far worse, as is much of Maine. If there were 3G cellular, it'd be a big step up. But I expect the inner cities will all be running LTE for years before more rural areas even get voice service.
That sums it up pretty well. In a previous life I operated an ISP in a
small town. When I entered the arena there was one other competitor,
another independent ISP deploying 2.4GHz wireless. The RBOC and cable
company weren't even considering rolling out high speed service but
there was a definite demand, especially from the business community. I
ended up having some measure of success deploying a mix of 2.4GHz and
900MHz wireless with DSL to fill in a few gaps. Before I sold the
business my main competitor folded and the RBOC pushed out DSL. I think
the local cable company joined the fray a couple years ago, too.
My achilles heel wasn't having to compete with a goliath RBOC, it was
all of the marketing. People would see ads on TV and in newspapers from
providers who didn't even serve the area. When they were told "sorry,
no broadband for you" from one of these national providers they would
often accept that as a final answer. Folks often confused my wireless
service with cellular or satellite access. They would have a hard time
understanding why I could not provide them service well out of range of
my POP where they could get "four bars" on their cell phone. Toward the
end I floated the idea of a co-op but local politics prevailed over
common sense and I quietly exited the business.
Things are slightly better today but the areas that were underserved
four years ago are still underserved. Population density will keep it
that way for some time but I think people have better options today than
a few years ago. My parents still only have 384k DSL but they are quite
satisfied with it. Broadband co-ops will help in areas where local
politics don't get in the way, but otherwise it is like Paul said, it's
just business.
I think a lot of people often forget that ISPs are actually
businesses trying to turn a profit.
Bearing in mind that the facilities that exist in much of the rural
united states are actually there because we collectively payed for them
rather than simply:
waiting for the right set of economic incentives to exist
or leaving people to suffer.
It not unlikely in some cases that the economic incentive for universal
service may never exist may never exist in some reasons which doesn't
mean that we shouldn't do something about it.
I'm finding a fair number (about 40%+) of the tech-savvy
"must-have-for-business-emails" users here in very rural UK out of reach
of RA-ADSL) are using/have used Lynx as their browser and Mutt as email
client, in some cases even when 3G (fringe reception only, possibly with
tropopausal involvement*) is sometimes reachable.
This only came to my attention last week when I noticed a strange
Mailer: header and kinda shocked me at first, so I quizzed the sender
further. They say that WAP-enabled sites are a non-starter for "daily"
use.
Worth looking into if the end-user can handle it in these situations.
Rural DSL for them usually means Damn Small Linux - their joke not mine.
Gord
(* I'm not convinced about this - it fits their anecdotes, but I'm not
sure about the timing/latency issues of the RF-side )
How do you think we feel in Alaska. Until mid last year, most cellular
BTS were backhauled via DS1. Only Within the last 12 months have we
(insert obligatory "I work for a GSM and CDMA cellular provider serving
most of Alaska") even migrated from Local copper to fiber or air
interfaces (ds1/ds3 microwave).
I've always been curious as to why the people who aren't being served
with "broadband" type of services haven't made a larger fuss about this.
The idea of running a copper pair to a home should have died long ago,
IMHO. As an RF Engineer, I see everyone turning to fiber and dry loops
when it's just not necessary or even cost effective. Put up the
*LICENSED* loop and call it a day.. Or a 5.8 RAD shot when you feel like
rolling the deice. Either way, cellular isn't the drop dead answer to
solving a sparsely covered area.
About 95% of my state is not covered by cellular, but we've had no
problems deploying the largest cellular (rural obviously) provider in
the United States - just look up. It's not as expensive as you would
think.
//warren
Warren Bailey
GCI Communication Corp.
RF Network Engineering
907.868.5911 office
907.903.5410 mobile
You wouldn't. The ILECs have resisted doing that sort of thing tooth
and nail. They may not want to sell you service yet but they don't
want anyone else to get a foot in the door while they get around to
it.
However, if it really is a 31kft copper loop all the way back to the
CO and not to a closer vault (try driving the wire path to find out)
you may be able to knock on a few doors in the middle around the 15kft
point, make a new friend, order a DSL in the middle, order an "alarm
circuit" or "dry copper pair" from the 15kft point to you and run your
own signal over the alarm circuit.
Your terrain may also be a factor. Rolling hills and 3-story trees
make wireless hard but if you can see rooftops near the CO with
binoculars from your rooftop, amplifying an 802.11 signal for a 6-mile
transmission is a walk in the park. Probably not helpful in western
Mass, but possible in southern CA.