Who pays for the bandwidth?

Most freenet enthusiasts imagine an Internet connection (a pipe) with a capacity to provide high-speed service to an unlimited number of WiFi freenet surfers, yet with a price as low as cable companies charge each subscriber when they share one T1 line among a hundred or more subscribers.

The reality that bandwidth is a limited resource, that there is a marketplace for bandwidth, and that we must all pay for what we use, seems to escape many freenet proponents. "You get what you pay for" has a flipside, "you must pay for what you get."

Recent rants on the BAWIA mailing list illustrate the wide spectrum of views on the problem.

Whoever pays, the amount paid will be less each year once the telecommunications industry gets back on its feet, lights the fiber, and solves the last mile problem with a mix of cable, wires, wireless, and laser to the home and office.

When we started skyBuilders in 1999, T1 was advertised at $2000/month. Our first T1 in 2000 was $1060/month (Verio). Our second (Primus) is still $895. Our third (Galaxy/TowerStream) is $499/month for a wireless connection.

Please note that these "T1s" are really DS1 (DS1 is 1.5Mbps data service independent of the means of delivery) provided over dual or single line pairs with HDSL technology.

Our most recent DS1 is from XO Communications, a "symmetric" SDSL for $299/month.

We also have an "asymmetric" ADSL line from Sprint Business DSL for about $200/month. They advertised a spectacular 8Mbps down and 500Kbps up speed. We consistently measured 4Mbps down and 700Kbps up, and we are 10,000 feet from our central office (CO) at Ware Street in Cambridge, where the DSLAMs are located. Unfortunately, Sprint is exiting the DSL business, and their bandwidth performance has collapsed.

A similar highly asymmetric and shared service (7Mbps down/1Mbps up) will be offered in Fall 2002 by Verizon, first in the NY/NJ area. If it is in the $200/month neigborhood, and if it is sold as a "Business DSL" product, we should all hope that the service level agreement (SLA) will allow WiFi freenets, because it will be the cheapest bandwidth on the block.

Why is HDSL DS1 (over a dedicated Verizon circuit) several hundred dollars a month while SDSL DS1 (over an ordinary line pair) is only a few hundred dollars a month? They both advertise 1.5Mbps in both directions.

First, when the local loop is a dedicated circuit, the phone company charges the DSL provider upwards of $200 a month. This is why the "Wireless T1" is a couple of hundred dollars less than wired solutions. The SDSL provider may pay the phone company a wholesale rate of only $10/month for the line pair.

Secondly, the DSL provider may be "sharing" access with many other subscribers on the same line. It is difficult to determine this from the advertising, and even from the SLA. You just have to ask the company and hope for a straight answer.

Finally, the old saw "your mileage may vary" is especially true here. It varies from day to day and minute to minute. You get what you pay for. See our measured bandwidth over our different providers for a dose of reality.

skyCAPS are Community Access Point Services based on a mix of technology, hardware, and software for management, monitoring, and billing recommended by skyCAPS.net, a subsidiary of skyBuilders.com.