Hi, I've kept this email since you sent it out. I just now read the article, and I agree with many things stated there. About two days before you sent this article, it came to my mind (because there was a discussion about metered billing) that electricity is metered... yet, it's so cheap now that people don't worry about leaving their TV or lights on while they are gone from the house for a few hours. I think some day internet access may come to that level as well... but it may be 100 years from now before that happens.
The biggest difference with electricity vs. internet service is that all the devices for internet service require two-way communication. Electricity is easy... you put it out on the wires, and people use it as they need it. There are almost no limits on the amount they can use, etc. Internet is different... the biggest difference is that every device that is connected can become infected, have bad hardware, or essentially take on a life of it's own... thus using more resources than what anyone realizes. A user could leave a bittorrent service running for 29 days before it's noticed... and then get a bill for $500 for that month's service... and nobody is happy. I think this is the reason that telco's and cableco's took so long to get internet going... they didn't know how to deal with two-way communication... and having a device on the connection that could cause an entire block, switch, router, etc. to have problems was totally new to them. Cable was easy when it was "download" only... same with telephone... a direct line back to a switch in a CO is easy... either it works or it doesn't. Will the internet evolve to something like electricity? I believe the answer is yes... but that is still a long time into the future... I doubt many of us will see it in our lifetimes. Travis Microserv Brian Webster wrote: > I have been of the thought process that Broadband needs to be compared to > electricity and telephone service expansion and deployments of the early > 1900's. Here is a nice article that draws a direct comparison to electricity > (and municipal networks). Should be good food for though to all: > > The Killer App of 1900 <http://publicola.net/?p=20687> > by Glenn Fleishman <techn...@publicola.net>, 12/11/2009, 11:18 AM > > It’s instructional to look back 100 years, not long after the first > electrical generation plants were built to bring power to towns and cities, > to assess the situation we find ourselves in with broadband availability > today. > > http://publicola.net/?p=20687 > > Thank You, > Brian Webster > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
