John Dvorak of PC Magazine is a curmudgeonly iconoclast who usually is entertaining just for his willingness to say the emperor has no clothes (even though you may think he does).
In the 29 January issue of PC Magazine (and, yeah, if I get a chance later, I’ll link to the article), he writes about the “Nine Assassins of Broadband” — the nine things which have killed further adaption of broadband service in this country.
As someone who can’t get the damned thing, I found it interesting.
1. Dial-up domination
Major services indicate dial-ups are increasing. They’re easy, they’re reliable, they’re ubiquitous. He also mentions V.92/V.44 modems, which offer compressed 300Kbps speed; I need to look into this, and see if our ISP, Earthlink, supports them locally.
2. The 24/7 conundrum
Dvorak questions whether people want or need 24/7 coverage. I think he’s nuts. The web (and e-mail) will only become a widely-spread, universally used appliance when there’s no question of “starting it up.” We do 24/7 dial-up, more or less. It’s great.
3. Price, price, price
Are people willing to pay for the extra cost of broadband? Frankly, it’s not that much more than a second dial-up line (necessary for #2). I’d be willing to do it. If I could.
4. The bad scene
Dvorak notes that broadband service is flaky, crappy, and rude. Yup. That’s a major problem.
5. Failure to deliver on promises.
Chicken, meet egg. Things which rely on broadband (streaming video, etc.) won’t become widespread and reliable until broadband is (now that folks have realized they actually have to make money in order ot stay in business). Until then, though, a lot of folks with broadband won’t find the content they are looking for. Unless they’re looking for the ability to e-mail megabyte files to each other. That works.
6. Bad reputation
Dvorak says consumers are leary of failing DSL providers, screwy cable modem suppliers, and lackadaisical fixed wireless providers. Yup. Tied with #4, that’s a big problem.
7. Cell phone threat.
Folks are hearing that cell phones will have huge pipelines and great content. This is so silly I can’t even discuss it.
8. Saturation
Dvorak suggests that “everyone who wants high-speed access already has it.” Au contraire, mon frer.
9. AOL syndrome
Dvorak also suggests that AOL functions just fine over dial-up, and its huge success makes broadband more of a niche. That may be true. Incredibly sad, but true.
*Sigh*
“Dvorak notes that broadband service is flaky, crappy, and rude. Yup. That’s a major problem.”
Hmmm…I dunno about that one. I’ve had Bellsouth’s DSL service for many moons now. The moment it came available, I waited the six weeks for install procedure (ok, THAT was silly). Since then? One issue, and an issue that is easily corrected. It seems the 12-hour DHCP liscence will sometimes cause the external USB-modem to fart, thus it will not collect the necessary new info for the new IP. Simply unplugging the modem from the wall for 10-30 seconds never fails to correct it. I know several who have broadband in the form of Cable and DSL in my area with little-to-no issues. Could be we have exquisite service folks here, but given the general lax attitude of the service populous here, I can’t say that argument stands.
It’s more expensive, and require a little more knowledge of your PC (or MAC) to have, but I have to say: worth every dime.
The true assassin of broadband? Greed.
Look at the Comcast fiasco (I am living through it.) Comcast got hungry and decided that Media One looked tasty. Somebody in the government decided that Comcast already had too much to eat and said, no-no-no – you can have the customers – but not the equipment.
Comcast bit anyway. Consequence? Somebody internal got a huge headache put on their desk, and either their rational wails of complaint were ignored, or, alternately, they put a bullet in their own head by saying ‘sure, we can do this.’
Then they plan to do this huge, elaborate, make-the-customer-do-the-monkey-work changeover on December 29th (That’s not the holiday season, what stress?) with a flawed CD they mailed to everyone (mine was broken in the post…) And when that causes unholy chaos they run incommunicado for days, then surface to say ‘we should have all this fixed by… oh… say…. the end of February.’
Then they turn around and raise the rates for those subscribers living in the metropolitan areas (not me, as a rural, I already pay $10.00 more a month for the service.)
Why am I on broadband? I run a company that produces CAD drawings. I communicate with other companies and share LARGE files via email on a nearly daily basis. I have a phone company that won’t or can’t support its own line to my house (an entire story of its own), and so I fear what they would do with a DSL contract. And, finally, I live in a cell-phone ‘deadzone.’ So even if was adept enough to go wireless, it likely wouldn’t fly.
I listen to all the talk about broadband with a careful ear. What I hear now might be important later. And in the meantime, I wonder – what huge company is going to screw me up next?
Most people I know who have gone the broadband route face the following pattern: (1) Horrific tales of service worker follies for the install, usually over a course of months. (2) Periods of good, solid, fast (though sometimes slowly deteriorating) service, interspersed by (3) occasional but utter frelled service horror stories as a major worm, technical problem, buy-out, or just poor management causes service fits for days, weeks, or months, with eventual (hopeful) return to step 2.
Me, I’d be willing to settle for something over a 41k dial-up connection.