I realize that the few who have visited this blog in the six weeks or so that it has been around lose interest in the blog itself when my posting interval stretches out to six or seven days.
But ...
If we can't get a dialog going here (meaning the readers have to show enough interest to post a comment, or at least tell somebody else who will comment to read the blog), I think that means there really isn't much interest in improving internet access in Los Alamos.
That the County should not waste its time even thinking about building a fiber network.
That I should not waste my money and time buying a wireless link to Albuquerque to bypass Qwest's overpriced circuits.
That we Los Alamos citizens will let LANL have the only decent (and for LANL, per-capita it's still pretty sub-standard for large-urban America, and way behind Japan, South Korea and the like) internet access outside Albuquerque (and Albuquerque is still pretty sub-standard compared to, say, Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, probably Salt Lake City, etc.) in New Mexico.
Come on, pipe up, get the word out, or we're sunk.
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5 comments:
I hate to say this, but I am not sure if blogging in Los Alamos has really 'happened' yet.
Blogging is either done on lanl-the-rest-of-the-story anonymously to put down everyone and their brother, or by younger people who for the most part don't live in Los Alamos anymore.
So to get more interest in the blog, you have to 'market' it by sending links to the places where Los Alamos people will listen or appear. That would be the AM radio station, the newspaper, and other Los Alamos blogs. For the radio and newspaper you have to do it for a good amount of time to get the random interest... for the other blogs you can get a mention usually by asking.
Dale, I just came across your blog...very interesting topic. I lived in White Rock from 1975-1981; I was a child at the time, attending Chamisa Elem. From there I moved to the North Texas area...I currently reside in Keller, Texas, which happens to be the pilot city for Verizon's FTTP (fiber to the premise) service called FiOS. The surrounding Keller area is (ok more like was) experiencing tremendous residential development. This was the perfect location for Verizon to build out their fiber plant. All new developments in the area have all utilities underground. I have to say that the FiOS service is the most reliable broadband service I have ever had. In my experience DSL is second and cable is third. I currently subscribe only to the data service, which runs 5Mb down, 2Mb up. Verizon's TOS are fairly lax..it only mentions that they will block upbound ports 80 and 25 (they don't want you hosting web/mail servers). Verizon has made a tremendous investment in their Keller area fiber plant. I have read guestimates that their customer acquisition costs are between $1000-$2000 per customer. As I previously stated I subscribe to the data service - it only runs $35 per month. For an additional $10 I could upgrade to 15Mb/2Mb service. I choose not to since my experience at 5/2 is that most websites cannot keep up with my connection (most sites throttle speeds to requestors). Verizon now offers, over the same fiber, analog voice and complete 'cable' tv service. I have visited the Verizon store and demo'd the tv service. The picture quality is amazing and their price is by far the lowest compared to DirecTV, Dish or the local cable provider. I chose to keep my DishNetwork because of their incredible dual-tuner, HD receiver. If Verizon starts to use a better Motorola receiver I would consider making the change. For about $110 per month you can get the complete Verizon package-5/2 internet, unlimited LD analog voice, and about 200 analog channels including their corresponding HD channels.
I don't know if building out a fiber cable plant in the Los Alamos/White Rock area is feasible. The residential density may not be there for a reasonable ROI...even if most residents subscribed. The terrain between Pojoaque and Los Alamos is tough. It would have to be aerial...I don't know what the pole rental is for that area.
ferny,
Thanks for your comment about Verizon FiOS in Keller. As I was reading it, I was thinking, "But isn't Texas in SBC/AT&T territory, not Verizon?" In case I had some fog about that, I went looking for a map and history of the Bell break-up from the 80's, and I found a RBOC and a Bell System entry in wikipedia.
So Verizon is expanding outside it's territory. Maybe they could do a New Mexico pilot in Los Alamos.
I think FiOS is PON (Passive Optical Network) which is asymmetric (faster download than upload for each customer.) Your remark about the TOS (terms of service) disallowing port 80 (web, or in common mis-applied parlance "the internet") and 25 (e-mail) outgoing service, indicates that same asymmetry. Their thinking must be that residential customers only consume what the internet delivers, they are not producers. Maybe Verizon just thinks fiber should have the constraints that copper wires had, because their thinking is in a rut. Whatever their reasoning, I think if they took their blinders off (sorry, you young folks that don't know about horses and buggies will probably have to find an explanation of blinders) they'd realize that's kind of silly.
I think I'd rather see commodity fiber ethernet equipment just like is used in buildings used in FTTX (fiber to the desktop, home, curb, neighborhood, whatever.) It does require power, though, and perhaps that brings copper back into the installation, and maybe that's not good. Copper has different problems than fiber has, so it is definitely a disadvantage to expand the number of problems.
Sometimes I wonder how many people understood your ads in the Monitor. It took me a while to notice them.
I noticed a new Qwest DSL modem for sale at Best Buy in Santa Fe. The box says it is capable of 25 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up. Where do you need to live in order to actually get 25 Mbps service?
Perhaps if enough people requested this service, Qwest would offer it here.
Maybe we should start a petition drive in front of Smith's.
@ad5rb
The only places I knew for 25mbps is outside of the country. The average speed in the US 2.5Mbps but that is usually for the shortest runs between the house and the 'Point of Presence'. The VDSL that you can get in Europe and Asia can give you a 50Mbps down and 10 Mbps up.
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