robbin
Premium,MVM
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX
| reply to jjsloan
Re: What does "burstable" mean?
I wouldn't call it marketing hype. The fact is that unless you have a business level connection with a guaranteed SLA (service level agreement), your connection is probably burstable.
As an example, I have a small WISP with a single T1 line (1.554 Mbps). If I sell dedicated, guaranteed speed, I can only get 12 128 Kbps customers on the line. If I let it burst, my customers usually have close to the T1 speed. That will change from minute to minute as when others are using the connection at the same time, there is still only the 1.554 Mbps to share.
If the WISP is using some type of bandwidth management to prioritize the usage (so one user with bit torrent doesn't monopolize it) everything should work fine.
In plain english, everyone (cable, dsl, wireless) has burstable, even if they are limited to a slow speed. The wording is probably due to problems which they have had with a few users. Many people don't realize that up to 1.5 Mbps doesn't mean that they can use 1.5 24 hours per day. By saying burstable, they are saying we are giving you the fastest signal we can provide, but we are not guaranteeing any set speed. |
