Fiber Plus Copper Equals High Bandwidth

We’re bandwidth hungry and getting more so by the day. Both businesses and consumers are finding themselves frustrated by their inability to take advantage of all the latest technologies due to bandwidth limited connections. Productivity vendors and content providers are in the same fix. They’re having a hard time delivering everything they can produce simply because the demand for transport and last mile bandwidth has exceeded the supply.

This situation is reminiscent of the early days of the personal computer. For several decades you just couldn’t get enough processor speed, RAM memory or hard disk capacity. Cheap RAM, huge disks and multi-core processors have pretty much eliminated this bottleneck. Well, not completely. You still find yourself having to upgrade your machines every few years to keep up with the demands of applications, especially video. But today’s limitations on progress are more related to the size of the pipe than the size of the machine.

Seems like the solution is pretty obvious. All we need to do is replace our outmoded copper infrastructure with fiber optic bundles and we’ll have all the bandwidth we can use.

In a sense, that’s what’s happening. Nearly all carriers have embraced fiber optic IP networks and are expanding their fiber footprints as fast as they can. But to think that we’re going to completely retrofit a century and a half’s worth of copper build-out with fiber optics on a one to one basis is just fanciful. Even today there’s no standard that mandates fiber optic service for new homes and businesses as a utility. You can bet that every building gets universal phone service delivered over twisted pair copper. But how many have a multi-fiber bundle terminated on the premises?

Someday fiber optics will be the default for voice, data and video. Copper will be for power. But today’s reality is that most bandwidth will be delivered to homes and businesses over standard copper telco wiring. Fortunately, technology has come to the rescue with new modulation techniques to squeeze higher and higher bandwidths from already installed copper wiring.

For businesses, the hottest bandwidth service right now is called Ethernet over Copper. It is becoming the upgrade of choice by companies who have tapped out the capacity of their T1 lines but can’t afford the construction costs to bring in fiber connections. The new terminal equipment combines the capacity of multiple copper pair to create a single wide bandwidth Ethernet service from carrier to user. The bandwidth is anywhere from 1 to 50 Mbps over a distance of a few blocks to a few miles.

That’s a considerable increase for many small businesses, although medium and larger companies still need to pony up for fiber to get the 100 Mbps to Gigabit Ethernet connections they need. But what about the consumer and companies that have a crying need for higher bandwidth but don’t have the budgets yet for fiber?

AT&T is pursuing a solution for residential users called FTTN or Fiber To The Node. This is a hybrid arrangement that uses the high bandwidth of fiber to get close to a neighborhood and then leverages the value of the already-installed telephone wiring to carry the signals into the home. It’s a way to jack up the speed of DSL way beyond what copper can carry all the way from the central office. How fast? AT&T is reportedly going to start trial service at 80 Mbps next year. That’s faster than the speedy 50 Mbps broadband service offered by Cable’s upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0 modems and even Verizon’s FiOS. Of course, both fiber and Cable have room to increase their speeds as competition demands. But perhaps AT&T can also push the envelope to 100 Mbps and beyond.

FTTN advances can benefit business, too. In metropolitan and suburban areas, carriers establish POPs or Points of Presence where they can connect to their fiber networks. From there they can “light” buildings with fiber service or provide EoC or Ethernet over Copper. The more fiber services there are in a particular area, the more options you have for both fiber and copper bandwidth at reasonable prices with minimal or no construction costs. Knowing where the high bandwidth services are already installed can also be a strategic advantage. If you are looking to relocate anyway, it just makes sense to find a location that already has the network services you’ll be needing. Use the Lit Building Finder to see what fiber optic bandwidth services are nearby.

CLEAR Sailing for 4G Wireless

You’ve heard that 4G wireless is coming. Well, CLEAR is deploying 4G WiMAX wireless services right now. If you are one of the lucky ones living in an area where CLEAR WiMAX high speed wireless broadband Internet is available, you’ll enjoy bandwidth similar to what you get from DSL or Cable, but without the wires. Various plans are available for home, mobile or both.

So, what’s WiMAX and what is the difference between 3G and 4G? WiMAX is an international standard for wireless broadband service. It’s been described as WiFi with a city-wide coverage area. Technically there are a lot of differences between WiFi and WiMAX, but that’s probably how you’ll use it.

WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It’s defined by IEEE standard 802.16. You’ll remember that WiFi is also an IEEE standard, 802.11. One difference between WiMAX and WiFi is that WiMAX uses licensed frequencies at high power. WiFi shares unlicensed frequencies with microwave ovens, Bluetooth headsets, cordless phones and other devices that operate at relatively low power levels. This is why you can get WiMAX in your car or at home, while WiFi disappears as soon as you drive away from the restaurant or leave your driveway.

Remember all the hoopla about kicking analog TV stations off the air so their channels could be sold to the highest bidder? Clearwire was one of the big winners in that spectrum auction and CLEAR WiMAX is the service they are offering on the channels they won. With no interference and towers transmitting powerful signals, WiMAX service can go for miles and even penetrate buildings. You’ll need a modem for your PC or MAC. It sits next to the computer on your desk or plugs into your WiFi router just like any other broadband modem. A WiMAX picks up its broadband Internet connection through the air. A smaller version looks like a USB memory stick and plugs into your laptop computer for mobile use. But WiMAX gives you service all over town, even in your car.

Isn’t that also true of 3G cellular broadband? Indeed it is. What WiMAX has to offer is generally higher speeds than 3G. That’s why it’s called 4G or fourth generation to indicate that it is a step up technically from 3G or third generation. How fast does WiMAX run? CLEAR says that the average expected download speeds are in the range of 3 Mbps to 6 Mbps, with occasional bursts up to 10 Mbps. Sustained rates of 3 to 6 Mbps are pretty rare for 3G mobile broadband.

Where is CLEAR WiMAX available? Right now it’s in selected areas of the country with more cities on the way as the build-out continues. The greatest concentration of service is in Texas, in almost a dozen cities. You’ll also find CLEAR in Hawaii, the Seattle-Portland area of the Pacific Northwest, Boise, Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milledgeville, Georgia, and Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Another advantage of CLEAR WiMAX 4G is cost. Plans start at $30 a month, which is less many DSL and Cable broadband plans and much less than 3G cellular broadband. Being wireless, the equipment is shipped to you and you install and activate it yourself. No waiting around for the cable guys. Plus you can get combined home and mobile service, which is something DSL and Cable can’t offer.

Does this sound like a broadband service you might like to have? If so, learn more and order your CLEAR WiMAX 4G broadband service online now.