Increased Bandwidth Irrelevant?

halbert writes "ArsTechnica has a story about AT&T COO Randall Stephenson telling folks that there is 'no discernable difference' between AT&T's 1.5 Mbps service and Comcast's 6 Mbps, because the backbone is slowing everything down. The main argument from the article is that fiber to the home is not necessary. How about letting the consumer decide that?" From the article: "This is a direct response to the criticism that AT&T has suffered for deploying a fiber optic network that reaches only to the local node, not directly into a customer's home--which means that the 'last mile' connection is still copper wire. Verizon, by contrast, is deploying fiber directly into the home, making for much higher speeds. AT&T argues that its model is cheaper, faster to deploy, and just as capable as Verizon's, which currently uses much of its massive bandwidth to distribute RF TV channels."

My neighbors have DSL and I have comcast

[DrRobert]

And I can tell a HUGE difference in the performance of the connection during normal browsing activities. When downloading a new distribution or flac files their DSL connections seem unusable to me.

Deciding is hard!

[feepness]

The main argument from the article is that fiber to the home is not necessary. How about letting the consumer decide that?

I'm sorry. I'm incapable of making important personal decisions.

Isn't there a government agency that could decide for everybody at once, including me?

Next you'll be asking me to choose a health-care provider!

Re:Tell that to my Familly

[MyLongNickName]

Did I have first post?

No. Apparently your cable speed is too slow.

45.2 Kbps

[rippofrank]

Damn you and your high-speed, all I get is 45.2 Kbps. :-(

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

nonsense..

[ShaniaTwain]

What possible reason could he have for downplaying a competitors speed advantage?

Along the same lines:

a '86 dodge omni is just as good as a brand new ferrari
rubbing alchohol is just as good as a bottle of wine
pressing hard on your eyeballs is just as good as going out to a movie

Just think of how much money you can save with this line of reasoning!
 
..good luck getting dates though.

Re:have comcast

[AnyoneEB]

We already have that. ;) (bash#104383 [bash.org])

bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
bloodninja: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey...
bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl. 8 chicken of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don't see it.
bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty F*ck of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
bloodninja: Don't f*ck with me bitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don't ever message me again you piece of ****.
bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
bloodninja: Baby?
--------------
BritneySpears14: Ok, are you ready?
eminemBNJA: Aight, yeah I'm ready.
BritneySpears14: I like your music Em... Tee hee.
eminemBNJA: huh huh, yeah, I make it for the ladies.
BritneySpears14: Mmm, we like it a lot. Let me show you.
BritneySpears14: I take off your pants, slowly, and massage your muscular physique.
eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: What the f*ck, I told you not to message me again.
eminemBNJA: Oh ****
BritneySpears14: I swear if you do it one more time I'm gonna report your ISP and say you were sending me kiddie porn you f*ck up.
eminemBNJA: Oh ****
eminemBNJA: damn I gotta write down your names or something

Time to retire Bill's quote...

[Volante3192]

"640kbps ought to be enough for anybody" --AT&T COO Randall Stephenson

Re:Makes a diff for P2P downloads

[charlesnw]

Kids? What are those? *googles by telnetting to google.com :80 and typing in raw HTTP strings* Oh. They result from a thing called sex.... *googles sex*. Oh that involves girls. What are girls *googles girls*. oH. This is /. remember? :)

Re:have comcast

[Burning1]

Sounds like my first relationship. Let me tell you that even if you have a weak back-bone, a fat pipe can be a lot of fun in the right hands.

yes indeed the AT&T guy is full of shite howev

[atarione]

all this bandwidth may windup being moot if the people that want to end network Neutrality and or switch to bandwidth used pricing models have their way.

why is it people in korea have like 20000000000Mbs connections for $10 a month (ok maybe i exaggerated slightly)

and in the US we will be lucky to keep only paying $50 a month of 3.0Mbs connections.

We in the US are getting Screwed on data pricing and speed.

Verizon deploying fiber to the home?

[Anonymous Coward]

Verizon isn't doing shit in my podunk town of Ridgecrest, CA. My second phone line is a split line and consequently I can't get Caller ID on it. And forget DSL! Verizon can't even tell me when I can expect anything better than 26k dial-up... And yet I'm paying the same price per line as someone in a larger city who can get DSL, so why should Verizon hurry up and get off their ass and run fiber to my house?

Re:And what would you do with a gigabit?

[sharkey]

Lets pretend that you have virtually unlimited bandwidth to your house. What are you (as a consumer) going to do with it?

I know what I'd do with it for the first 5 minutes. Then I'd probably need a nap.

Re:What can I say? He's wrong.

[SwashbucklingCowboy]

For some reason, I think he's trying to spin this. A year from now, AT&T will be offering 6 Mbps and saying what a great thing it is and how everyone needs to use it to truly appreciate it.

I can say that I certainly noticed the difference when I upgraded my DSL service.