<div dir="ltr">CenturyLink is indeed doing fiber to the node and then some will see faster DSL as a result. I would put the one-more-hole-in-the-wall obstacle up there with "one" of the reasons I don't own a Porsche -- I would have to clean out part of my garage to have a place to put it.<div>
<br></div><div>There are other reasons of course, and just about all of them are more important. For both myself and CenturyLink, the real problem is insufficient revenue to make things go faster =)</div><div><br></div><div style>
Cellular is not getting huge data rates - real world tests of 4G show that it is inferior to cable, which is hardly super fast. And congestion is a far larger problem with wireless than many ackowledge, particuarly as we don't want towers blighting the landscape everywhere and the big companies don't want to pay to make them blend in.</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>--christopher</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div>Christopher Mitchell<br>Director, Telecommunications as Commons Initiative<br>Institute for Local Self-Reliance<div><br>
<a href="http://www.muninetworks.org" target="_blank">http://www.muninetworks.org</a><br><div>@communitynets</div><div>612-276-3456 x209</div></div></div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Owen Densmore <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:owen@backspaces.net" target="_blank">owen@backspaces.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Interesting observation. Isn't Century Link's strategy to build out enough fiber to somehow also make DSL better via neighborhood hubs?</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif">I heard something like that and know a problem they face is simply getting into the household: no one wants more holed in the wall etc. A wireless 1st mile for example would make sense too.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif">I guess the question is what is the end point in this game. Certainly a fiber world with several services other than just TCP/IP would be interesting. But the cellular folks are now getting huge data rates and I suspect their target is the home as well as the phone.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#000000" face="verdana, sans-serif">An image I enjoy when trying to explain the "house interface" to the community is picturing a giant pulling up my house into the air, and looking at all that stuff that dangles back to the ground: water, sewer, phone, and generally cable. Hopefully cable will be replaced with a more general wire sometime, but not for a while. The giant is also careful to surround the house looking for RF in/out and thereby also finds satellite, TV/radio, cellular, and possibly wireless internet.</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font color="#000000" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#000000" face="verdana, sans-serif"> -- Owen</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif">
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small;font-family:verdana,sans-serif"> -- Owen</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 12:38 PM, Christopher Mitchell <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:christopher@newrules.org" target="_blank">christopher@newrules.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Given how little CenturyLink actually has to invest, I wanted to set the record straight with what communities can expect from the third largest telephone company in America.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><a href="http://muninetworks.org/content/even-after-omaha-communities-cannot-count-centurylink-connectivity" target="_blank">http://muninetworks.org/content/even-after-omaha-communities-cannot-count-centurylink-connectivity</a><br>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">In short, Omaha is a fluke not a new strategy.</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
----------------</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">CenturyLink is a massive telephone company struggling to remain relevant as we transition to mobile phones and require connections much faster than <a href="http://muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term9" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,136,0)" target="_blank"><cite title="Digital Subscriber Line - or Internet access offered over the phone lines. DSL allows users to use the Internet at speeds greater than dial-up while also using the phone line for telephone conversations. DSL uses frequencies not used by human voices. Unfortunately, these frequencies degrade quickly over distance, meaning customers must live within a mile of the central office to get the fastest speeds.">DSL</cite></a>delivers. Though the Omaha gigabit announcement may seem to be a monumental shift for this company, it actually is not. It is a blip on the radar - an important blip but a blip nonetheless.</p>
<p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">The Omaha pilot does not represent a sudden change of CenturyLink strategy or capacity. Part of West Omaha has a unique history that prompted this investment. The vast majority of communities in CenturyLink territory still have no hope for upgrades beyond the basic DSL they offer today. Sadly, this already-outdated technology will only fall further behind in coming years.</p>
<p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">First, if you missed it, CenturyLink has announced a <a href="http://www.omaha.com/article/20130501/MONEY/705019865" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">1 Gbps pilot project in Omaha, Nebraska</a>. This is considerably more newsworthy that <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Why-ATTs-Promise-To-Bring-1-Gbps-to-Austin-is-Mostly-Empty-123807" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">AT&T's toothless fiber-to-the-press-release response to Austin's Google Fiber</a>.</p>
<p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">CenturyLink is a massive corporation in a tough spot. It operates in 38 states and in each one, subscribers are fleeing slow DSL for faster networks and moving from landlines to wireless devices. CenturyLink does not have enough revenue for the upgrades most communities need.</p>
<p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">CenturyLink deserves some praise for this gigabit trial because it recognizes the need to upgrade old networks to offer faster, more reliable connections. And it is <a href="http://muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term24" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,136,0)" target="_blank"><cite title="Internet connections have two components - a downstream and upstream. When the two speeds are comparable, the connection is termed symmetric. Fiber-optic networks more readily offer symmetrical connections than DSL and cable, which are inherently asymmetrical. Ultimately, purely symmetrical connections are less important than connections which offer robust connections in both ways. However, modern asymmetrical connections via DSL and cable networks offer upload speeds that are too slow to take advantage of modern applications.">symmetrical</cite></a>, offering the same<a href="http://muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term28" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,136,0)" target="_blank"><cite title="Internet connections have two components - a downstream and upstream. Upstream refers to the rate at which the user's computer can send data to the Internet. DSL and cable networks frequently offer upload speeds at only 1/10 of the downstream speeds. This is one of the main reasons DSL and cable networks are insufficient for the modern Internet.">upload</cite></a> speeds as <a href="http://muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term8" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,136,0)" target="_blank"><cite title="Internet connections have two components - a downstream and upstream. Downstream refers to the rate at which the user's computer can receive data from the Internet.">downstream</cite></a> whereas the Verizon <a href="http://muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term11" style="color:rgb(121,80,37);text-decoration:none;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,136,0)" target="_blank"><cite title="Verizon is the only large carrier building a ftth network. This network is called FiOS. Though FiOS is similar technologically to community fiber networks, we believe communities should have a strong voice in how the network is run and Verizon does not offer this.">FiOS</cite></a> network tends to prioritize downstream at the expense of up.</p>
<p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">For years, CenturyLink has told communities that basic DSL is just fine. We'll probably still hear that talking point in many communities from CenturyLink's government affairs staff. But this project is an admission that America needs better networks.</p>
<p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px"><strong>Why Omaha</strong>?</p><p style="line-height:18px;font-size:14px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;margin:1em 0px">
Read the rest here:</p><p style="margin:1em 0px"><font color="#000000" face="Verdana, Tahoma, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;line-height:18px"><a href="http://muninetworks.org/content/even-after-omaha-communities-cannot-count-centurylink-connectivity" target="_blank">http://muninetworks.org/content/even-after-omaha-communities-cannot-count-centurylink-connectivity</a></span></font></p>
<div><font color="#000000" face="Verdana, Tahoma, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="Verdana, Tahoma, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div><div>Christopher Mitchell<br>Director, Telecommunications as Commons Initiative<br>
Institute for Local Self-Reliance<div><br><a href="http://www.muninetworks.org" target="_blank">http://www.muninetworks.org</a><br><div>@communitynets</div><div><a href="tel:612-276-3456%20x209" value="+16122763456" target="_blank">612-276-3456 x209</a></div>
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