IMHO
February 18, 1998
John Swenson
MSDN Online
Every once in a while a new technology comes along that is so interesting I feel compelled to write about it, even if it isn't directly related to software development, the usual topic here at MSDN Online. Today's irresistible cool technology is ADSL, or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. As you've probably read by now, this high-speed telecommunications technology allows users to download information over normal copper phone lines at speeds ranging from 1.5 to 8 megabits per second (Mbps). Upload speeds are a bit slower, peaking out at 1 Mbps, but that's still 34 times faster than a 28.8K modem.
ADSL and cable modems are supposed to be the technologies that will finally break the bandwidth barrier, allowing millions of home PC users to throw away their 28.8K or 56K modems and download Web pages at least 50 times faster. Both services are still in scarce supply, however, and have yet to see widespread deployment by phone companies or cable companies.
Aside from this rather major hurdle, which time should solve, I can vouch from personal experience that ADSL is not some blue-sky technology. It's real, and it works great.
Please pardon the sales pitch. I have no reason to sell anyone on ADSL; I'm just an enthusiastic convert. I'm one of 1,000 Microsoft employees participating in an ADSL trial that Microsoft has been running in the Redmond area in collaboration with GTE, the local phone company around here. When the trial started two years ago, only a couple of dozen GTE and Microsoft employees tested ADSL at home. At the time, ADSL was one of those cutting-edge technologies that was cool, but so far from public availability that it was hardly worth writing about.
Today, ADSL is much more interesting to write about because soon you won't have to work at a company like Microsoft to be able to try it. GTE and several other phone companies plan to begin offering the service to the public in numerous cities around the country by the end of this year. The ADSL Forum (see their Web site at http://www.adsl.com/), a trade group that promotes ADSL, keeps a list of ADSL rollouts around the world, where you can check to see if the service is due to arrive soon in your area.
GTE plans to end its trial and begin offering ADSL service to the public within three months, beginning in such towns as Redmond where the company already has installed ADSL equipment in its switching stations. Prices reportedly will start at around $50 per month for home users. That's surprisingly affordable when you consider that it's likely to include a leased ADSL modem, and is only 2 ½ times more expensive than the $20 per month that most people already pay for a personal Internet account. It seems reasonable to predict that many PC users will decide 50 times the speed is worth 2 ½ times the monthly cost, especially when they consider the other benefits of ADSL.
What I like best about ADSL is that the service is always on (no more dialing an Internet connection) and works over the same voice line you can talk on. Even while you're surfing the Web with ADSL, your phone can ring (or you can dial out) and your conversation sounds totally normal. ADSL eliminates the need for an extra line reserved for your modem, saving at least $20 a month.
If you're like most developers, you probably work at home occasionally, perhaps just on nights or weekends. The hassles of dialing into the office to check your e-mail and access your files may keep you from working at home more often.
Developers don't need a high-speed line to write code from home, but a technology like ADSL sure helps when you're transferring files to a remote server, checking e-mail, dialing into the corporate network, or surfing the Web. ADSL also lets you download any software application in minutes.
When I joined the Microsoft-GTE trial last spring, GTE gave me an early ADSL modem from Westell (http://www.westell.com/) that could download data at 1.5 Mbps, but upload only at a paltry 56K. I recently moved, and this week GTE visited my new home to reinstall ADSL. The installer brought a new Westell modem that downloads data at the same 1.5Mbps, but uploads data at speeds approaching 1 Mbps. Like my older Westell modem, this external modem connects to my PC through a standard Ethernet card.
Setting up ADSL on my Windows PC was a snap. All I did was type in an IP address, a gateway address, and a handful of other entries in my Network settings, and then ping the addresses in a DOS box to make sure they worked.
My new ADSL modem uses rate adaptive technology to automatically adapt its speed to line conditions and distance, so it performs optimally at all times. Instead of a clunky gray box, this Westell FlexCap modem is housed in a sleek black case. This attention to how the product looks is a good sign. It tells me Westell must be gearing up to begin marketing ADSL modems to the consumer public, instead of just to telephone company engineers.
The biggest difference between my new and old ADSL modems is that the new upload speed lets me host a Web site at home. This is a lot easier than transferring all of my Web files via FTP to a remote server at my Internet Service Provider. The 1 Mbps upload speed is plenty fast for dishing out Web pages on a small personal Web site. As long as I leave my home PC turned on, my Web site is always up and running.
From an end-user perspective, ADSL doesn't have any drawbacks I can see other than the potential cost issue if phone companies price the service too high. The biggest issues face the phone companies, which must bear the cost of rolling out ADSL to tens of thousands of customers in each market.
The GTE installer who visited my house told me ADSL is far easier to install and set up than ISDN, yet he still had to spend three hours solving an installation problem that turned out to be at the GTE switching center. Most home ADSL installations only take about an hour, he said. Still, the time and cost of dispatching an installer for every new ADSL customer adds up fast, no matter how quick the installation.
To solve this installation cost hurdle, Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq recently announced they are teaming up with GTE and a bunch of other telecommunications companies and equipment makers to develop a mass-market version of ADSL called Universal ADSL. (Read more about this announcement on the GTE Web site at http://www.gte.com/g/news/fastadsl.html.) This so-called "DSL Lite" technology is supposed to be a lot easier to install when it rolls out at the end of this year, since installation won't require a visit from the phone company. There will no longer be a need to install a splitter on each user's phone jack. Nor will users have to open their PCs to install a network card, since DSL Lite modems will connect through the Universal Serial Bus.
DSL Lite won't be as fast as regular ADSL, but it will cost less. Phone companies may limit download speeds to well under 1 Mbps to keep prices low. Not much public information is available yet about DSL Lite, but you can check the Universal ADSL Working Group Web site (http://www.uawg.org/index.html) for updates.
No matter how the phone companies configure ADSL, every home user who tries it a will experience a quantum leap in performance over today's pokey analog modems. Working from home will get a lot easier, and developers will be able to download software to their heart's content. Slowly but surely, today's bandwidth crunch will fade away.
Comments? Send us e-mail.