01 Feb 2004, 02:02, Jasen Betts (3:640/1042), wrote to Matt Mc_Carthy:

Hi Jasen.

 JB> Hi Matt.

 MM>> According to recent Telecommunications hearings on C-SPAN, high 
 MM>> speed access, whether DSL or cable is _still_ only available to 7% 
 MM>> of the US population.

 JB> !!!

 JB>  it's most places where people live here (major cities, and 
 JB> larger towns)

 JB> I wonder if that 7% figure is the capacity of the existing 
 JB> infrastructure, and not the nuber of people who have the opportunity 
 JB> to subscribe.

The members of the hearing continually used the term "available
to", and since the hearing was composed of reps from the cable
industry and all the phone companies, my impression definitely pointed to
the lack of infrastructure.

This city is about a million people, and after 20 years not all have access
to cable TV even.  Cables have been strung many times, but the technology
kept changing faster than they were able to complete the wiring.  Right in
front of my house (I do have Cable TV), there are four sets of completely
different cables that were strung, and the ends were never terminated, they
are just hanging loose from the poles.  It's that way all over the city.

As far as the phone company, this city is almost 600 years old, and all the
Central office stuff was originally built into the 'central city', and
upgraded as needed over the years.  The suburbs _do_ have phone company
sub-stations, but the fringes of the original city are left high and dry as
far as DSL.  My guess would be that many older cities with a non-industrial
infrastructure would likely be in the same boat.  

In my case, since I _could_ get a cable connection, I'm part of that 7%
that _does_ have 'high speed available', but at a prohibitive price for
what I do with the Internet.


     Good luck...  M.

--- Msged/386 TE 06 (pre)