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ABOUT January 14,
2010
Cable,
DSL, Wireless, or Satellite Compared for Internet Broadband Service and HDTV
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Internet
Service, phone service, and television service are routinely bundled by service
providers. With the availability of VoIP
(Voice over Internet Protocol), the lines between the different services have
blurred. Broadband Internet service
(High Speed) for residential or small business requirements has been generally
been available in cities from two primary sources: DSL, a system that
piggybacked on the telephone wiring from the telephone company, or cable, a
system that piggybacked on the cable TV wiring.
In 2008, about 25 million customers utilized cable broadband, and about
22 million customers utilized DSL. In
2001, a total of about 5 million customers used either cable broadband or DSL.
For most
people the TV coaxial cable has offered better performance than DSL, but if you
were highly price conscious, then the DSL cable may have been competitive. So, in a discussion of broadband choices, we should
include cable and DSL, but we will also discuss new options that are now
available like WildBlue satellite, and services that
will soon be available like WiMax
(WiFi
with a city-wide hot-spot) and ViaSat (satellite communications on
steroids).
The
Impact of Video Downloads (especially HDTV)
Despite
the relatively small number of users, research indicates that systems such as
BitTorrent and YouTube account for more than half of all Internet traffic. In 1995 the total amount of data transacted
over the Internet backbone was about 1.5 million GB. By 2006, this had grown to
over 700 million GB.
·
ABI Research projects that the number of video downloads to increase from 215
million downloads this year (2008) to 2.4 billion downloads in
2012. This number becomes more
impressive when one takes into account that a much higher per cent of those
downloads in 2012 will be HDTV files, which are much larger (A non HDTV movie
is approximately 3 GB/Hour, HDTV file size is dependent on encoding: an MPEG-4
encoded HDTV movie file size is approximately 5 GB/Hour, an unencoded 1280 X
720 movie file size is over 150 GB/Hour, and an unencoded 1920 X 1080 movie
file size is over 350 GB/Hour).
By 2010,
forecasts call for 80-90% of Internet traffic to be video transfer.
Cable
and Phone Companies (DSL) Broadband:
Cable
broadband is capable of about 30 MBPS of bandwidth, however, speed can vary.
Unfortunately, the measurement in real-world conditions can be more
complicated. If many people in your neighborhood use the same broadband service
as you, and those people use a lot of bandwidth, for video downloads for
example, then you will be sharing some resources, and your performance will
suffer. Most service providers offer
service with between 3-6 MBPS bandwidth for downloads. Upload bandwidth is lower: usually between
200-600 KBPS.
Median
DSL speed in the
Both
Cable Broadband and DSL service providers commonly employ bandwidth caps for
residential and small business customers. Service providers concerned about the
overall capability of their network may institute the capacity constraints so
that they can provide equal performance to all of their customers.
Cable
and the Phone Companies HDTV:
Verizon
is building fiber-optic networks that will be capable of broadcasting handle
200+ HDTV channels in addition to all of the conventional TV channels.
Most
cable operators have enough available bandwidth for only about 10-12 HDTV
channels. The strategy is to provide on-demand
service, so that the customer can receive sufficient selection.
WiMax
and LTE:
In major
metropolitan areas in the
Most
major wireless carriers are skipping WiMax, planning instead to build out
networks using a similar technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE), a
successor to current cellular technology. WiMax has a head start on LTE, which
won't be ready until 2010. These two
technologies are referred to as 4G networks (Current state of the art mobile
phone technology for accessing the Internet is called 3G). If mobile broadband service is important to
you, these products will be very attractive.
Unlike rivals GSM and CDMA, both 4G networks are based on
"Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing" (OFDM), also sometimes
referred to as "discrete multi-tone modulation". Since both LTE and WiMax are based on similar
technology, a unified standard is possible in theory, and discussions are
ongoing. Motorola has said 85% of the
technology and work for WiMax equipment will be reused in its designs for LTE
equipment.
WiMAX
and LTE can deliver large amounts of bandwidth operating at the low power
levels necessary for mobile devices. Another advantage of WiMax/LTE is its
ability to communicate out of line-of-sight (unlike conventional WiFi), and to
communicate into large buildings, in theory making dropped calls, typical of
today’s cell phones, a thing of the past.
VoIP (telephone service) has already been deployed on WiMAX networks in
other parts of the world. A company
called MobiTV will utilize the WiMAX network for the broadcast of TV, including
HDTV.
Satellite
Broadband:
Also
newly introduced into the Broadband market, is WildBlue Satellite. This broadband service does not require a
phone or cable line. WildBlue Satellite broadband service offers
download/upload speeds starting at just $50 per month (512 Kbps download speed
with upload speed up to 128 Kbps), or $80 per month (1.5 Mbps download speed
and uploads up to 256 Kbps). For those
living in areas not well served by Cable Broadband and DSL, this is an
attractive alternative. iNetVu offers a portable system for vehicles.
A very
powerful new satellite, Viasat-1, will launch in 2011, and will significantly improve
the competitiveness of satellite in this field.
ViaSat-1 has a total throughput capability of over 100 Gigabits per
second, which is more capacity than the current North
American fleet of two-way Ka, C and Ku band combined. In 2010, Ka-Sat will launch
a satellite to provide similar service in
Both
WildBlue and ViaSat terminals use a networking technology that uses satellite
bandwidth more efficiently, called DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface
Specifications), lowering the cost of Internet service to consumers. The
terminals include satellite modems and Ka band transceivers. DOCSIS also
includes technology that addresses rain fade, a reduction in signal strength
caused by heavy rain. The DOCSIS system automatically responds to rain fade
with uplink power control and adaptive data coding techniques.
ViaSat-1
will offer 10 to 15 times the capacity of Ku band satellites through frequency
reuse by using a technology called "SpotBeams" (WildBlue also uses
SpotBeams). The high throughout of ViaSat-1 makes it ideal for transmitting new
video applications requiring ultra high bit rates such as HDTV, HD digital
cinema, and 3D TV. SpotBeams are like a
searchlight. Instead of sending a signal
across the continent, SpotBeams focus a signal on an area 50-100 miles in
radius. Since the frequency is focused
on a limited area, the same frequency spectrum can be reused for a different
locale.
WildBlue
and ViaSat are geosynchronous satellites.
A geosynchronous satellite remains above the same spot on the earth by
orbiting at approximately 36,000 kilometers above the equator. Your signal must do a round-trip, and the
minimum time for such a trip is about 1/4 second.
Satellite
HDTV:
While
HDTV local channels are more available on cable than satellite, DirecTV and the
Dish Network each offer more national HDTV channels. DirecTV offers about 60
national HDTV channels and the Dish Network has about 50 HDTV channels. DirecTV and EchoStar plan additional
satellites to offer at least 150 national HD channels, as well as local
stations in HDTV.
"Satellite's
going to be constrained not so much by how many channels they can carry than by
how many they can get," Bob Scherman, Satellite Business News.
By 2010,
60% of TV receivers will use a Satellite signal, up from 15% in 2002.
Summary:
§
Median DSL speed
in the
§
Median Internet
speed over Cable broadband is about 4.5 Mbps.
§
WildBlue service
is approximately 500 Kbps.
§
WiMax service is
between 1 MBPS and 4 Mbps.
§
ViaSat-1 service
(2011) will be about 2 Mbps.
HDTV
service is currently more fully served by the satellite TV companies. New systems being implemented by Verizon, or perhaps a retooling by local cable TV operators
will offer the best competition.
The
supply of HDTV and Broadband service in the
Currently,
over 90% of customers of broadband services utilize either cable broadband or
DSL. However, new worthy competition is
entering the fray, and it will be difficult for those services to maintain
their market share. Competition should
be good for the customer, driving down prices, and probably improving the
performance of their networks. Even if
no investment were to occur by DSL or cable broadband companies, if your
neighbors abandon the service you utilize, you stand to inherit their
resources.