BHN Internet Speed Bump-Up

[FTBoomerIII]

So last week a little birdie told me that BHN will be increasing thier max residential internet to 30/10 in the 1st QTR of 2008. Anyone else hear anything about this?

[DSquare]

Man if thats true there will be one less reason for me to switch to FIOS.

[skottey]

I'm a reseller and haven't heard anything..... not that they tell me anything, but you'd think they'd want to promote this.

Will business service see a speed increase? What about VO? We pay a premium for speed and should see an increase accordingly as well. I am paying about $90 a month for a VO 15/2 account with static IP. It would be ridiculous if the residential accounts paying $45/month saw 30/10 speeds, while VO Ultimate stays 15/2.

[LonghornXP]

I do know that DOCSIS 3.0 is being installed and they just finished (at least very close) upgrades to a 1Ghz network. So with all the above said I'd say its a good shot for this to happen.

[djkilla]

I just want to be sure I understand this correctly. Currently I have a 15/2 connection with my bundle of internet, cable tv and digital phone service. Are you saying that my internet connection could jump to 30/10? I'm assuming to get such high speeds you'll have to pay to get it. It'll probably be offered as an additional/premium package. I would be shocked if they actually bumped my speeds up as a courtesy.

-D j K i l l a-

[AmelFl]

I just need the upload speed to be higher, these torrent websites are killing me

[skottey]

I just need the upload speed to be higher, these torrent websites are killing me

For whatever the reason (web hosting, video games, file sharing, VPN, IPTV or phone), high speed Internet connections should be full-duplex and equal in speed in both directions. This download/upload speed difference is BS. We should have 10/10, 15/15, 30/30, whatever.. the speeds should be equal in both directions. Increasingly, there is more and more traffic going the other way for a thousand different reasons.

You don't walk to the store and ten steps back. You walk to the store and all the way back. An Internet connection should be 100% complete as well, and that means full duplex.

I am so sick of dealing with bottlenecks in my business customer's locations. I setup VPN networks and connect location A to B and the upload speed of either or both site always hinder the applications running across the network.

All providers need a major overhaul to equal out the download and upload speeds. The Internet in general needs a major overhaul and a speedy move to IPv6.

[pilotbob]

We should have 10/10, 15/15, 30/30, whatever.. the speeds should be equal in both directions.

You do realize that if we all had asymetric connections that the speeds would be much lower, right.

Personally, I (and I think most home users) generally are pulling much more down than sending up. So, I would rather have my 15/2 connection than say a 5/5 connection.

It might be "BS" but it is done for a technical reason. There is only so much bandwith avaialble so most providers tweek it to optimize download speed at the expense of upload speed.

BOb

[skottey]

You do realize that if we all had asymetric connections that the speeds would be much lower, right.

Personally, I (and I think most home users) generally are pulling much more down than sending up. So, I would rather have my 15/2 connection than say a 5/5 connection.

It might be "BS" but it is done for a technical reason. There is only so much bandwith avaialble so most providers tweek it to optimize download speed at the expense of upload speed.

BOb

That isn't completely true. They have the technology to offer you 15/15. The fact that they do not is more of an economical reason than a technical one. The providers that do offer 15/15 charge more because they can. Look at Fiber to the house providers like Verizon FIOS. Bandwidth is not an issue, yet they offer 15/2 and 30/5 type speeds. They are using an old business model. BHN has bandwidth issues, but they won't after they scrap some more analog by moving it to digital. We'll see if they offer up more upload speeds then.

During the early days of consumer broadband, download was way more important than upload. Simply put, we downloaded a lot more than we would ever upload. But that has changed. Like the examples I already provided, things like VPN, IPTV, IP telephony, online backups and restores, all require a substantial amount of bandwidth in both directions, not just downloads anymore. This goes for both home consumers and businesses.

I work in the industry and deal with the bandwidth limitations all the time and know this first hand. Maybe you would rather have 15/2, but I deal with many businesses that would be far better off with 5/5. But I am not talking about 5/5. I am talking about 15/15 or 30/30. Whatever the amount, providers need to work on this issue and make available matching download and upload speeds. Don't sit here and tell me it isn't necessary. If you think that, you probably don't do much more than download and surf.

[pilotbob]

That isn't completely true. They have the technology to offer you 15/15. The fact that they do not is more of an economical reason than a technical one. The providers that do offer 15/15 charge more because they can. Look at Fiber to the house providers like Verizon FIOS. Bandwidth is not an issue, yet they offer 15/2 and 30/5 type speeds. They are using an old business model. BHN has bandwidth issues, but they won't after they scrap some more analog by moving it to digital. We'll see if they offer up more upload speeds then.

During the early days of consumer broadband, download was way more important than upload. Simply put, we downloaded a lot more than we would ever upload. But that has changed. Like the examples I already provided, things like VPN, IPTV, IP telephony, online backups and restores, all require a substantial amount of bandwidth in both directions, not just downloads anymore. This goes for both home consumers and businesses.

I work in the industry and deal with the bandwidth limitations all the time and know this first hand. Maybe you would rather have 15/2, but I deal with many businesses that would be far better off with 5/5. But I am not talking about 5/5. I am talking about 15/15 or 30/30. Whatever the amount, providers need to work on this issue and make available matching download and upload speeds. Don't sit here and tell me it isn't necessary. If you think that, you probably don't do much more than download and surf.

I could get 15/15 from Verizon... but I don't see that it is worth the extra $20 a month. Yes, I would RATHER have 15/15.

Also, yes mostly what I do it download... that is also the common use case for the majority of internet users too.

BOb

[skottey]

I could get 15/15 from Verizon... but I don't see that it is worth the extra $20 a month. Yes, I would RATHER have 15/15.

Also, yes mostly what I do it download... that is also the common use case for the majority of internet users too.

BOb

Please don't miss my point. There is a shift in the way bandwidth is used. It isn't just request page upload, download page content anymore. Security cameras, Slingbox, video games, etc... these are just a few things in addition to what I have already mentioned that are requiring more and more upload bandwidth of the connection.

512 or 768 may seem just fine for upload when you are home, but when your staying in a hotel and you try to connect to your home Slingbox and you are competing for that little bit of upload speed out of your house, which is also trying to use that 512 or 768 to upload to Mozy for a backup of your home PC, you'll quickly realize how important upload speeds are with your connection. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Broadband with low upload speeds is so yesterday. Things really need to be ramped up for faster upload speeds.

I have 15/2 VO with BHN and utilize many of the things I have talked about. I have many things battling on a constant basis for the little bit of upload speed I have. Between the PC usage of three people, a webserver, Xbox live and PS3 online, connecting to Slingbox remotely, online backups,etc.

Unless BHN increases the speed of upload, I may be forced to get FIOS as a second Internet provider when it becomes available in St. Pete just to handle some of the load. It is insane.

And that is just my own personal situation. Like I said, I deal with business and bandwidth issues all the time, as that is what I do for a living. It is a real problem.

[pilotbob]

Please don't miss my point. There is a shift in the way bandwidth is used. It isn't just request page upload, download page content anymore. Security cameras, Slingbox, video games, etc... these are just a few things in addition to what I have already mentioned that are requiring more and more upload bandwidth of the connection.


I understand your point and what you are saying. Actually, the upload speed is one of the reasons I choose FiOS over BHN. While I would like to have more for the same price I am pretty satisfied with the 2Mbps uplink speed (better than a T1) that I have now. Although I don't use sling box, don't yet have offsite back (but keep meaning to get Jungledisk/S3) I certainly see more uses of it. For example, using hamachi to surf the net safely while on some public Wifi spot.

The good thing is, as time passes technology improves and I have no doubt in a few years we will see the uplink speeds increasing... the competition is the first step I think.

BOb


BOb