December 15, 1998

from the Friends-of-the-Revolution dept

Premise
=======
I am currently at 35,000ft on a late night flight from New York to San Fransisco and a couple of things are becoming clear to me.
�
1. Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) will win out over Cable Modems.
2. eCommerce will be larger than current predictions.
�
�(this is what I do... :-) )
�
Background
==========
DSL is the telecom solution to high-speed bandwidth into the home.� It uses your existing twisted pair copper wiring and pushes data at previously unheard of rates (1.5MB/sec).� In contrast, Cable companies are re-wiring homes to support two way communication, since they never expected content to be heading in the opposite direction.� Both are beginning to be offered in regional areas for around $50/month.
�
Substantiation
==============
No I am not on my 6th beer, and no the altitude is not affecting my judgement.� Rather I can see the millions of lights stretching across the country.� These light are the millions of households that will need to be re-wired to support Cable modems.� These are also the same houses that are already wired for DSL service.� There are a lot of lights out there!� Cable companies don't stand a chance.
�
Once these houses are connected to the Net at high speeds with permanent connections people are going to start buying lots of stuff over the net (many people already are).� It is very obvious from here.� I can see all the cars on the road (traffic -- bad).� I can see all the houses (lots of people -- good).� Its going to be huge!� Oh yeah... I saw Nicholas Negroponte speak and he agrees with me on this point.
�
Conclusion
==========
Point 1 and 2 are true.� Oh yeah... 3. Why do airlines try so hard to make good food?� I would prefer for them to give me two Snickers bars than to eat what they call beef.�

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Friends of the Revolution
by Brian Day

A column that comes out every so often, and talks about something or another... To subscribe to Friends of the Revolution email bcd2@cornell.edu

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