Residential Broadband: An Insider's Guide to the Battle for the Last Mile [Paperback]

Kim Maxwell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471251658 | ISBN-13: 978-0471251651 | Publication Date: November 23, 1998 | Edition: 1

Integrated analysis of the technologies, markets, and business of Residential Broadband In thirty years, the worldwide market for high-speed information services to the home will reach SI trillion. This book explains how and why. Beginning with tutorials and a few touches of history to position residential broadband today, this essential guide examines how competing technologies will struggle for supremacy in a chaotic market. It stakes out the battles between ADSL and cable modems, IP and ATM, telephone companies and CATV companies, televisions and personal computers, and professional applications and consumer applications. It does so with reverence for none-some will win and some will lose as the market emerges over the next decade or so. Our guide is kim Maxwell, an entrepreneur and executive who has spent twenty-five years inventing ways to make communications technologies and markets fit together. His analysis takes some surprising turns:
* The Internet will not be the dominant network for residential broadband.
* Despite its current power, IP may over time give way to ATM for residential broadband.
* Cable modems have the early lead, but the DSL tortoise will catch up.
* Fiber to the Home and the Information Superhighway are at least fifteen years away and depend upon HDTV.
* Despite regulatory intentions, residential networking will return to a monopoly within thirty years.
* Computers and televisions will not converge.
* Ethernet will dominate home networking.
* Video-on-demand will not be a viable market for at least five years.
* In the long run. Consumer applications such as shopping and entertainment will dominate the more near-term applications for Internet access and telecommuting.
* But, the market can only begin with the personal computer and its natural applications-Internet access and telecommuting.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Everyone wants a faster Internet connection at home, and cable modems, ISDN lines, and other speedy links have already begun to infiltrate home offices. But this is just the beginning, as Kim Maxwell explains in Residential Broadband. Lots of new technologies will fight to provide "last mile" service into residences in the near future. As in any battle, there will be winners, losers, and bit players here. Maxwell gives you a line on what will work and why.

Residential Broadband first provides some historical context, explaining how Western Union provided transcontinental telegraph service--and made a profit doing it--in the 19th century. Then, the author details how a standard telephone line into a home works--fascinating reading for anyone who's always taken such technology for granted. From there, Maxwell makes the leap into data- communications technologies, including standard modems (which Maxwell helped invent), ISDN lines, various Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) schemes, and cable modems. The author shuns wireless residential broadband technologies, saying that adequate bandwidth can be had only through satellites, which are too expensive.

Rather than treat his topic in a dry, technology-centered way, Maxwell spends a lot of time explaining the research he's compiled on the applications--research that will spur deployment of high-speed network connections to residences. The ultimate driver of communications technologies is making money, he writes. Electronic commerce will be a big player here, as will videoconferencing and (eventually) entertainment technologies, such as video on demand. --David Wall

From the Back Cover

Integrated analysis of the technologies, markets, and business of Residential Broadband In thirty years, the worldwide market for high-speed information services to the home will reach SI trillion. This book explains how and why. Beginning with tutorials and a few touches of history to position residential broadband today, this essential guide examines how competing technologies will struggle for supremacy in a chaotic market. It stakes out the battles between ADSL and cable modems, IP and ATM, telephone companies and CATV companies, televisions and personal computers, and professional applications and consumer applications. It does so with reverence for none-some will win and some will lose as the market emerges over the next decade or so. Our guide is kim Maxwell, an entrepreneur and executive who has spent twenty-five years inventing ways to make communications technologies and markets fit together. His analysis takes some surprising turns:
* The Internet will not be the dominant network for residential broadband.
* Despite its current power, IP may over time give way to ATM for residential broadband.
* Cable modems have the early lead, but the DSL tortoise will catch up.
* Fiber to the Home and the Information Superhighway are at least fifteen years away and depend upon HDTV.
* Despite regulatory intentions, residential networking will return to a monopoly within thirty years.
* Computers and televisions will not converge.
* Ethernet will dominate home networking.
* Video-on-demand will not be a viable market for at least five years.
* In the long run. Consumer applications such as shopping and entertainment will dominate the more near-term applications for Internet access and telecommuting.
* But, the market can only begin with the personal computer and its natural applications-Internet access and telecommuting.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471251658
• ISBN-13: 978-0471251651
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,156,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Application & Market info is great. Tech info unclear., July 19, 1999

By 

Michael J Leahy (Santa Rosa, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Residential Broadband: An Insider's Guide to the Battle for the Last Mile (Paperback)

These opinions are not necessarily those of my employer.

I think the author did a fine job of explaining the applications and markets for residential broadband. The argument is lucid and reasonably concise.

I had a lot of trouble following the information about networking protocol. The pros and cons of the various appoaches were not clearly explained. The interlinking of data from the various protocols is also not well explained.

Information about the current physical plant bottlenecks was meager. Digital satellite broadband service is simply dismissed as too expensive, with no corroboration. The claim that ADSL will win out over cable modems in the medium term and keep hold of the broadband pipeline until we get fiber to the home seems both unsubstantiated and self serving. The relationship between available signal frequency bandwidth and Mpbs is not covered.

I expect that the level of interest in this topic will give Mr. Maxwell the opportunity for at least a 2nd edition. I wish him a tough, unflinching editor.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This guy knows his stuff!, February 16, 2000

By 

William Yarberry - See all my reviews

This review is from: Residential Broadband: An Insider's Guide to the Battle for the Last Mile (Paperback)

The author not only packs his book with information and explanations of residential broadband, but he includes many interesting facts about telecom in general. For example, on page 108 he says "Within a decade, most networked traffic will not travel more than a few miles and will not enter the internet."

I disagree with one reader who found a single reference to the ancient greeks a waste of time; I enjoy authors who are actually educated and well rounded -- they can write a sentence that is clear and do not need to hide behind jargon.

I found his discussions of trends and his logical support of conclusions to be worthwhile. He also throws in miscellaneous facts -- for example, how did he know that most ILECs have roughly half their capital investement in copper?

If any reader wishes to fill the interstices of his mind with telecom & broadband knowledge, this is the book to get.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars extremely provocative, very well informed, July 16, 2000

By 

PaloAltan "PaloAltan" (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Residential Broadband: An Insider's Guide to the Battle for the Last Mile (Paperback)

I admire the author of this book for being provocative, as opposed to simply cataloguing information in the way that virtually all other books of this ilk do.

I don't fully agree with all of Maxwell's predictions -- in particular, his guess that ATM will have a much larger role to play in this part of the network -- but he identifies all the issues.

Hats off for a tech book with a strong point of view and a ton of great insight.