Posted on 04/18/2008 5:03:35 PM PDT by HAL9000
There is a dirty little secret in the cable industry. Its being kept secret not by the cable distributors, but by the big cable networks. End this practice and the United States goes from being 3rd world by international broadband standards, to top of the charts and exemplary.Make this change and Net Neutrality becomes a non issue. There is plenty of bandwidth for everyone.
What is the dirty little secret ?
That your cable company still delivers basic cable networks in analog. Why is this such an important issue ? Because each of those cable networks takes up 6mhz. That translates into about 38mbs per second. Thats 38mbs PER NETWORK.
USA Network, 38mbs. ESPN, 38mbs. MTV 38mbs. VH1 38mbs.etc, etc, etc.
If we want to truly change the course of broadband in this country, the solution is simple. Just as we had an analog shutdown date for over the air TV signals, we need the same resolution for analog delivered cable networks.
Transition basic cable networks from analog to digital over the next 3 years and all of the sudden there will be hundreds of megabits available on the smallest cable systems and more than a gigabit of bandwidth available on the largest.
Of course the cable networks themselves would fight this. It could reduce their subscriber counts. God forbid that USA Network and other basic cable nets do not reach every household that doesn't have a digital set top box. That is of course far more important than the upside to our entire country that plentiful bandwidth creates. Right ?
So for all of you netizens out there, drop all the Net Neutrality efforts and focus on pushing analog cable networks to digital and you kill two birds with one stone. You eliminate any issue of Net Neutrality with bandwidth a plenty, and you immediately make our nation bandwidth competitive with every nation in the world. In fact, done right, we become the envy of every nation in the world. All without a single backhoe or blade of grass in a yard harmed.
I might even have to change my stance on internet video reaching broadcast quality !
The Public Switched Telephone Network should also be phased out rapidly and replaced with a digital standard. That would be a bigger game-changer than digital cable.
Like AT&T’s U-Verse? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-verse
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=5838
AT&T’s U-Verse is such an example, although it is inferior in every aspect compared to Verizon’s FIOS network.
I am not a techie. How is U-Verse inferior to FIOS?
FIOS is a fibre-to-the-premises system. U-Verse uses old copper wire for the last mile, and it won’t scale up as well.
But not until those that own the bandwidth find a way to create new revenue streams for the increased capacity.
Why would they do it before then? What is the motivation? Altruism? Hardly.
It’s not a matter of altrusim. The FCC and Congress are pressuring the cable companies to maintain analog service for now, so the bandwidth is tied up for now. That makes sense for a transitional period, but our long-term prospects will be better if the analog service is shut down sooner than later. Digital converters are available for analog TV owners, so their old sets can continue to work after analog broadcast/cable is shut down for good.
“Digital converters are available for analog TV owners, so their old sets can continue to work after analog broadcast/cable is shut down for good.”
Yes, but analog users continue to fight/complain about the switch. Comcast and others want to switch over because it is not cost effective to maintain two systems. Analog is also holding back true video on demand.
There is revenue streams there. Comcast is already putting in their own video on demand servers. They want their users using only Comcast servers for content and then to charge other content providers extra for their content going over Comcast fiber. They would be making money from their content and on what non Comcast content they allow on their network. That is Comcast, TWC, Verizon and at&t’s main goal. That is what net neutrality is all about. It is also why Cuban is fighting against the big ISPs since he would be one of those being charged extra for his content, from HDNet, going over ISP networks.
The FCC just auctioned off the analog TV frequencies, so those broadcasts must end on schedule next year. There's no going back now.
I haven't really noticed many complaints from the analog users yet, but they will be howling mad next year.
“I haven’t really noticed many complaints from the analog users yet, but they will be howling mad next year.”
Oh they are there, they just don’t use the Internet much. There mostly the 60 and up crowd or those that can’t afford the Digital Cable/Satellite. If Cable/Satellite came down on their basic digital packages that would be close to pricing as the basic(which is what most analog cable services are) analog I think it would make things smoother in getting people to switch. I think the last time(2006) I had cable the analog basic service was $12.00/month verus cheapest digital $25.00/month. I haven’t looked at the current pricing and don’t plan to since I am doing the online thing.
Isn’t Mark Cuban in the cable business?
Just saying...
He is a content provider via two HD channels.
I'm just a little too cynical sometimes.
If you don't believe me...ask my wife. The lusty, busty, Mrs. B.S. Roberts
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