Is there anything better than broadband?
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Almost anything, is
the short answer.
Broadband ADSL services were conceived as a way of maximising
limited bandwidth for users of the internet. More precisely,
the internet as it existed in about 1995 when typically, a
few keystroke sent to your ISP's server would initiate the
return of a big static webpage. |
| ADSL limitations |
The problem is the diverse ways
in which we now use the web have not been matched by improvements
in communications technology. The 'A' in ADSL stands for 'Asymmetric'
ie. the service is slower one way than the other. It can be
anything up to 10 times times slower. So the advertised download
speed of 8Mbit/sec. for an ADSL service as well as being hardly
ever achievable (unless you happen to work next door to a
telephone exchange and no one else is sharing your service)
is also rendered irrelevant for many applications because
the return is only 0.5Mbit.
Anything involving storing or updating information on remote
servers, running hosted programs like webmail or remote access
for home-workers or office to office networking is constrained
by the 'upload' performance of ADSL. |
| leased lines |
There is an SDSL with equal performance
in both directions but the cost is mysteriously high, the
availability restricted to main urban centres. It is tempting
to speculate that this apparent reluctance to deploy SDSL
has more to do with the profitability of the leased line business
which has been a cash-cow for BT for decades. Leased lines
as slow as 2Mbits/sec offer better capacity than any broadband
service because they work at 2Mbits concurrently both ways
and they are not shared. As a 'point to point' service with
one physical wire linking two sites there is no switching
through who knows how many servers in the internet 'cloud'
for your data to reach its destination. The problem is, when
you might be paying around £350 per year for a business
quality ADSL service you will pay at least 10 times that for
a leased line connecting two offices in the same neighbourhood
+ an installation fee of maybe £3,000 + expensive Cisco
routers at each end. No wonder the 'next step' beyond broadband
is one that most smaller businesses can never justify as a
good investment. |
| high speed internet-based
services |
Leased lines are very inflexible.
You cannot easily move the service to another site and a well-placed
drill in the street outside can put you out of service completely.
There is no shortage of premium data services based on high
speed and resilient data networks and internet nodes covering
the whole country. Some offer 10Mbit or more, delivering an
ethernet service that will plug straight into your local network.
The catch, as always, is the cost.
Other so-called. MPLS services enable you to dynamically allocate
the line capacity between different applications -apportioning
enough bandwidth for VOIP phone conversations or video-conferencing
to work concurrently with a data networking role. |
| the future |
Improvements remain elusive in spite
of much razamatazz by service providers and government. Before
you leap into spending huge sums on high-speed data connections
you should evaluate options like 'bonded' broadband using multiple
cheap ADSL lines to improve available bandwidth. Or simply install
multiple phone lines for specific applications, rather than
trying to do everything with a single circuit. Modern ADSL routers
which can load-balance across several circuits and manage secure
encrypted remote networking are surprisingly cheap, though configuring
this kind of setup is not for the faint-hearted. |
visit
Orchard Computers website