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DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| reply to gissa
Re: Covad Finally lowers adsl service prices
said by gissa  :
I'm guessing sonic.net will be bankrupt this year.
Zoikes. I hope not. We've been doing this for nearly ten years, and I don't have any plans to retire.
I'll let you in on a little secret.
Bandwidth is virtually free.
Well - there's a bit more to it than that, but here's the basics.
DSL customers typically use about 1% of the bandwidth they are provided. So, thousands of DSL customers use tens or hundreds of megabits, not thousands of megabits.
Customers don't use a while lot more bandwidth just because they have more bandwidth. I'm typing this post now from an 8.0Mbps wireless link at my home - and I'm not downloading, or otherwise using the link. I'm busy typing. I'd be typing the same speed at 384kbps. What we see is that a 1.5Mbps customer uses just a bit more bandwidth than a 384kbps customer, even though they COULD use six times as much.
And finally, bandwidth is free. Uh, kinda. Inbound bandwidth can be picked up from major transit providers for free, for really close to free, or for the cost of a cross connect into their cage. The reason is that their peering agreements with others stipulate that they've got to maintain a certain ratio of inbound (eyeballs) to outbound (websites). If they make most of their money hosting websites, they end up with an imbalance - and they want to partner with us to get our customers to suck some inbound. Odd, egh?
Oh, and BTW, to dgm, we're not limiting this to the first 1000 customers - DSLExtreme has an offer that's a little more expensive, and they're limiting it. We're taking anyone who signs up, and who can be serviced.
One other item to note is that Enhanced SBC-ASI DSL is only available to customers who are within 7500 feet of a central office or neighborhood gateway (RT). So, lots of people who would want it, can't get it. Due to this, and because we serve Northern California exclusivly, I don't predict we'd get more than a thousand or two orders anyway. We currently serve about 32,000 customers, so it's not like we're trying to double in size or something in a rapid period of time - too-fast growth can certainly hurt a business.
-Dane | |
neftv
join:2000-10-01
Broomall, PA
 ·Broadvox Direct
| Dane,
Now I see why there is one hell of a profit margin in the other companies. But I always wondered how the connection is made at the CO to the internet. Is there a T-3 line there at each CO? How can that be virtually free is what I still don't understand.
It's to bad my CO is only serviced by Covad and verizon, pretty much strapped. The other thing is why say limit the bandwidth from the home to the CO in these price plans. Why not make it one low price and you get the maximum that you can get based on your line and distance to the CO. | |
DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| The connection from the CO to the ISP is via the ATM network. Each DSLAM in SBC West land (the area I'm most familiar) is an Alcatel - most serve up to 576 end-users. They speak ATM over DMT out the long loops to the customers, and ATM over fiber at OC-3 rates of speed (120Mbps after overhead - an OC-3 is 155Mbps raw speed). I believe that the Alcatel has two OC-3 outbounds, but I'm not sure about that.
The OC-3s connect to an ATM switch that's part of the LATA-wide (a LATA is a section of the state, here's an example of the two that we serve: »www.sonic.net/sales/dsl/sbc/dsl_lata_map.gif ) ATM network. The ATM network is a set of ATM switches at SBC offices, interconnected with at least OC-3 links. ISPs get an ATM T1, multiple T1s (IMA, inverse muxed ATM), T3 (36Mbps max) or OC-3 (120Mbps max).
In Sonic.net's case, we've got one OC-3 in Santa Rosa serving our largest block of customers, plus a T3 in San Francisco that most new customers are loaded on to (an upgrade to OC-3 is scheduled in the next few months), plus a T3 in Stockton for our customers in that LATA. In addition, we've got an ATM T3 to BroadLink, our wireless service partner, as they hand off customers in the same way.
Individual customers are provisioned as ATM virtual circuits; a path and channel. A customer might be "12/89" for example, meaning path 12, which is a specific DSLAM, say one in San Jose for example, and path 89 - a unique number for each customer. Then, using RADIUS (authentication software), we allocate a static or dynamic IP address or block of static IPs to that customer. Note that this is where service is suspended as well - if they fail to pay their bill, the RADIUS servers learn this from the accounting system, and the PVC is disconnected until payment is made.
As for why not just make it all one fast connection speed to the home - that's all about "product differentiation" from the perspective of the telcos. Of course, there are also concerns about network design and the backplane and uplink capacity of the DSLAM equipment, but mostly, it's about getting a bit more money.
-Dane | |
drmorley
Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-20
Park Ridge, IL
clubs: | Ever plan on introducing your products to the Chicago market? | |
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