COVER STORY

First of a series...

This is the first of several monthly articles covering new service offerings and evolving technologies being deployed by the cable TV industry. In this article we explore the high-speed Internet access services just now becoming available through some cable operators. Subsequent articles in future months will delve deeper into the underlying technology of the cable system infrastructure that makes the delivery of high-bandwidth digital services possible, and discuss some of the future service offerings, such as digital telephony and broadband video, planned by cable operators in the near future.

Tired of surfing those graphics-rich Web sites and experiencing the "World Wide Wait"? Coffee get cold while that page loads? Singing those 14.4Kbps analog modem blues? So you stepped up to 28.8K or, like me, became an analog rebel, knowing that 56Kbps was close on its heels? Or maybe you jumped through the ISDN hoops offered by your local Telco, thinking it would be an installation cakewalk. (Yeah, right. Like when was the last time a Telco delivered anything besides Plain Old Telephone Service—POTS—without headaches?) Cheer up, bunkie, bandwidth nirvana may be yours, and the biggest surprise of all might be that it is your cable TV operator who delivers it to your computer. That coaxial cable sticking out of your wall may be really a wide pipeline to deliver television broadcast, Internet access and, in the future, digital telephony and high-bandwidth data communications and video services.

The cable TV operators in the region are among the major players in this worldwide industry. Southwestern Cable (a Time-Warner division), Cox Communications, Comcast and Media One are each offering Internet access to users within their respective service areas. Cox covers portions of San Diego and Southern Orange Counties. Southwestern covers major portions of San Diego County. Comcast covers portions of Southern Orange County, while Media One covers portions of Northern Orange County and Southern L.A. County. Specific coverage areas can be found at their respective Web sites (see sidebar "Where Can I Get It? What Does It Cost?").

It may not be a widely known fact, but Southern California, specifically L.A. and Orange County, and most particularly San Diego County, have among the highest percentages of per-household PC and Internet users in the country. Now think about that for a moment—highest percentages in the country. Higher than Route 128 in Boston ("America’s Technology Highway," as they refer to it there), higher than Silicon Valley. There is only one other place on the planet that is more wired and computerized (and then mostly commercial business)—the New York City/Wall Street financial district.

Cox Communications Vice President Bill Geppert states that in Poway, a San Diego area community currently served by Cox@Home, approximately 80% of the households have at least one PC. Many have more than one. Overall in San Diego County, about 56% of the households in the I-15 inland corridor and I-5 coastal corridor have PCs. Geppert goes on to say that as a percentage of the overall population, the San Diego metropolitan area "has more fiber in the ground, more PCs with modems (meaning they are likely connected to one or more online services and/or the Internet) and more Ph.D.s" than anywhere else in the country. It’s no wonder, then, that Southwestern and Cox made huge investments in San Diego County to upgrade their cable TV plant and infrastructure to support high-bandwidth bi-directional connectivity.

With an affluent population having a high percentage of PCs in homes likely already surfing the Net, for the cable TV operator considering supplying Internet connectivity via the cable TV system, success was practically ensured. In San Diego, Southwestern rolled out its service on February 7 and recently passed the 5,000-customer mark. Cox launched its service on May 10, and to date has over 3,000 customers. Both are adding customers at a rate of 200 customers per week, with no slowdown in sight. In fact, with over a half million "pass-byes" (customers who are cable-ready), both companies have considerable growth potential.

When Bruce Springsteen sang about all those channels to watch and not a damn thing on, he hadn’t thought about high-speed Internet access being delivered over the same coaxial cable as Roseanne, Geraldo and Jenny. Many Southern California cable operators either have deployed, or are in the process of deploying, the cable infrastructure upgrades necessary to support bi-directional high-bandwidth digital communications. And just how fast is it? How about (in most cases) at least 100 times faster than the fastest residential service available over your local Telco’s copper wires? That includes either analog telephone service (POTS) or ISDN’s two "B" channels operating simultaneously. In fact, it’s so fast that it’s probably capable of delivering those graphics-rich Web sites to your PC much faster than all but the fastest PCs are able to digest them. Now that’s fast.

According to Southwestern Cable’s Michael Bunney, General Manager of its Road Runner operation, the system is capable of delivering up to 10 Mbps in the downstream (Internet to PC) direction and supports 768 Kbps in the opposite (PC to Internet) direction. The network infrastructure and cable modem technology used by Southwestern’s Road Runner and the @Home services offered by Cox and Comcast are nearly equivalent and offer comparable bandwidth. The Media One Express system uses cable modems from Bay Networks’ LAN City subsidiary which operate at slightly slower speeds (according to their literature, about 50 times faster than the Telco circuits—still impressive).

The cable TV infrastructure, based on coaxial cable, has been partially upgraded with an extremely high-bandwidth fiber optic "backbone." While the connection to your home remains coaxial, a series of neighborhood "nodes" and "hubs" aggregate many coaxial connections onto the fiber backbone, creating a hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) architecture. It is this backbone which carries both the normal TV programming supplied by the cable operator, but also the new bi-directional data for many Internet users.

The cable TV company provides a "cable modem," a device that performs a function much like a traditional analog modem in a package only slightly larger. This provides the bridge from the coaxial cable to your PC, which connects to the cable modem with a 10BaseT Ethernet port. The connection uses the TCP/IP protocol stack (the "language" of the Internet network) inside your PC to communicate, via the cable modem, to the cable TV operator’s network and then the Internet. All of this technology is fairly mature; it’s just the cable industry’s use of it that is new. It’s fast, but it’s not rocket science; therefore no need to feel like you are a human guinea pig in some exotic experiment.

In addition to speed, cable TV access offers three significant advantages over traditional dial-up data access. First, the connection is available immediately, compared to the long times required to make an analog modem connection, especially if you get a busy signal. This is important if you want to get to a Web site quickly, for instance, when checking the Caltrans traffic map on your way out the door. Second, you remain connected as long as desired without incurring additional charges based on hourly usage. Finally, it does not tie up a single phone line nor does it require an additional or second line.

Having just moved to an area of San Diego serviced by Southwestern Cable, I had the opportunity recently to experience the installation process firsthand. Putting it simply, it was quick, easy and painless. The cable installer and a computer technician arrived on time. Within 10 minutes my cable was "live" for my TV service and the necessary changes made to the cable connection out in the street to support bi-directional Internet traffic. The computer technician checked my computer (a Compaq 66 Mhz ‘486 laptop) for available disk space, the needed Win95 TCP/IP software components and a 10BaseT Ethernet card. Finding all well, he installed the logon script, connected the modem with an Ethernet cable, and fired up both modem and computer. Logon happened in the blink of an eye. After that, a customized version of Microsoft Internet Explorer automatically downloaded, and I was off to the races. Total elapsed time? About 30 minutes, including my asking a dozen stupid questions.

Cable providers generally recommend PC users have a ‘486 CPU or better, with Win95 and at least 16mb RAM (although I only had 12 and it works fine). Mac users should expect to have a 68040 CPU with System 7 or better and 16mb RAM. You will need about 50mb of available disk space for the scripts and browser. Obviously if you already have a browser, far less disk space will be required. While it may be possible to operate with less performance or resources, expect performance to suffer.

Perhaps the only complaint about the service that could be lodged would be cost. At first blush, the $40 to $50 price range for Internet connectivity seems hefty. If, however, blinding speed is what you are after, the cable TV solution is without question your best bet by a long shot; it would be a bargain at twice the price. If speed is not your primary concern, don’t dismiss the cable solution just yet. Jumping to this conclusion without further analysis would be a mistake. What is often overlooked when making a cost comparison to traditional analog modem/Internet Service Provider (ISP) solutions is three factors: first, the cost of a second phone line—usually about $15, with ISDN somewhat higher; second, the cost of the ISP services (email accounts, Web page hosting and the like); and third, the incremental cost for unlimited connect time (the ISP’s rate as well as the phone call if their dial-up service isn’t in the same call service area). Sure, I know...most ISPs have rates under $20 a month for services comparable to the cable TV provider’s email and Web page hosting services. And some ISPs have pricing packages which allow unlimited connect time. All I’m saying is do the math first, then decide. Cable TV offers a price-competitive alternative and, if you consider your time even a little bit valuable, it pencils out. It’s not for everybody, but then again…neither is bungee jumping.

Connecting to Other Online Services

America Online and CompuServe allow subscribers to make connections to their services through the Internet. For instance, with AOL you merely create a modem setup and choose TCP/IP as the network choice in the connection setup box. If you are paying $19.95 per month for AOL, by using TCP/IP you can reduce your monthly AOL cost to $4.95 (assuming you still don’t need occasional dial-up support for travel, etc.).