Re: Locations with no good Internet (was ISP in Johannesburg)

[Patrick Giagnocavo <patrick () zill net>]

Michael Sokolov wrote:
> Another possible way to solve the middle mile issue would again be to
> use the copper plant that's already in the ground.  Unlike fiber, the
> copper plant is *ubiquitous*: I don't know of any place in the 1st or
> 2nd worlds that doesn't have copper pairs going to it.  Also AFAIK T1s
> are available everywhere too: if you order a T1, they'll deliver it to
> you regardless of how deep you are in the middle of nowhere, although I
> suppose there likely are extra surcharges involved.

Pardon me if attribution is screwed up ...

> Granted, a T1 at 1.5 Mbps may not be much for backhaul, but what about
> bonded T1s?  Bond 4 of them to get 6 Mbps symmetric - not too bad in my
> book for a rural community.
>
> And again using SDSL instead of T1 offers a cost reduction opportunity.
> One could get that 6 Mbps symmetric for much cheaper by bonding 4 SDSL
> circuits running at 1.5 Mbps each instead of T1s.  There is a Covad
> DSLAM with SDSL capability in virtually every CO in the country, but

Isn't this really an issue (political) with tariffed T1 prices rather
than a technical problem?

I was told that most T1s are provisioned over a DSLAM these days
anyways, and that the key difference between T1 and DSL was the SLA
(99.99% guarantee vs. "when we get it fixed").

And T3/DS3 can run over what, 4 copper pairs?  Yet how much is the
typical tariffed rate for that?

--Patrick