Date: Fri 13-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-Brand-cable-modems

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE: Cable Internet

By Bob Brand

High-speed access to the Internet via cable modem moves slowly out of the

testing phase and into the get-it-now phase. Recently, Joe Romano, Charter

Communication's Internet Sales Manager in Newtown, permitted me to

"test-drive" the system. Here is what I found.

Charter Communications, a St Louis, Mo., based cable television provider,

field tested Internet access with 700 customers in California. After positive

trial results, Charter has opened general availability in some areas. For

several months, they have had an on-going beta test program with about 40

customers in Southbury. By mid-March, Charter will make their second offering

in the US for Internet cable access in the Southbury and Woodbury areas. By

late summer, Trumbull and Monroe should be on-line. Newtown subscribers, the

last on the list due to the oldest equipment in the system, will not be

offered Internet cable until early 1999.

Charter has struck an agreement with Earthlink Network, Inc, an ISP (Internet

Service Provider) in Pasadena, Calif., to provide Internet availability.

Essentially, Charter handles installation, the equipment needed to get the

signals to the ISP and Level 1 technical support (24 hours a day, seven days a

week). Earthlink provides the Internet side of the technology including Level

2 user support.

Special Equipment

In order to receive the Internet via cable from Charter, a Pentium class

computer is required. Installation costs have not been finalized as yet.

Everything is so new, but the price is expected to be in the $100-$150 range.

This includes: cable wiring (from the junction box outside your house) to your

computer, opening your computer to insert a 10 Base T ethernet card (this is a

special piece of hardware that allows the computer to be on a network), and

the loading of the software, currently Netscape Navigator 3.0 or Microsoft

Internet Explorer 3.0. In addition, COM21's ComUNITY Access external cable

modem must be rented from Charter. You cannot use the current set-top box

connected to your television. Internet installation, according to Romano,

takes 45 to 60 minutes.

Charter expects to offer two high-speed access plans. For delivery of data at

256,000 bps (bits per second), the cost will be approximately $30/month;

512,000 bps will cost $50/month. (Note: costs had not been finalized at the

time of our meeting.) Keep in mind that the rental of the COM21 cable modem is

an additional $15/month. Charter plans to have even higher speed access

available in the future.

Performance

Romano permitted me to test drive a 256 kbps connection. The speed appeared to

be about five times the speed of my 50,666 bps connection with my USR X2 modem

via Netplex. It was impressive. I downloaded a large (8.4 MB) Quick Time movie

file (a trailer of Men in Black ). The speed of the download almost kept pace

with the showing of the movie in real time. Very nice. Next, I downloaded

several large graphics files (gifs). Again, the pictures painted the screen

rapidly. Next, I tested a Real Video/Real Audio broadcast. It immediately

became apparent that many of these sites cannot send the data onto the

Internet fast enough to make a significant improvement in performance.

Cost Versus Performance

A cable modem is connected to the Internet 100 percent of the time. This

offers several strong advantages over a telephone connection. There is no cost

for a second phone line. Essentially, the $15/month cable modem rental offsets

the cost of a separate phoneline for the modem. Also, there is no delay in

connecting to the network. For AOL users, this means no busy signals .

Therefore, the comparison between cable Internet and what you use now boils

down to a higher speed to Earthlink for $29.95/month versus your current

provider (many people pay $19.95/month) and a 28.8/33.6/50.x kbps connection.

I have had no first-hand experience with Earthlink as a provider. In general,

larger ISPs tend to be less personal than their smaller competitors. However,

Earthlink offers some compelling features that smaller ISPs may not. For

example, they have a full newsgroup feed. Charter, through Earthlink, will

offer 6 MB of webspace for a home page. Charter may provide as many as three

e-mail boxes for each account. Some ISPs have an extra charge for more than

one e-mail address.

In addition to 24x7 tech support, Earthlink has a bimonthly (six times per

year) newsletter called bLink. Charter will offer a dial-up account to

Earthlink (a nationwide ISP). If the cable connection should go down (the POTS

-- plain old telephone service is highly reliable) or you want to access the

Internet when out of town, you can dial into a local POP (point of presence)

and have full access. Finally, in homes where there are two or more people

accessing the Internet at the same time, there is no extra monthly charge

because only one cable modem is required for up to eight users. With the low

cost of computers and the gaining popularity of the Web, this can give the

cable providers, like Charter, a big advantage over POTS/ISDN providers.

The Trumbull Home Show, being held at the Trumbull High School March 28 and

29, will have a booth manned by Charter personnel displaying their cable

Internet service. Stop in and say hello to Joe Romano and give their system a

try. Newtown residents will have to wait until next year before they can take

one home.

A Reminder

Attention Charter Cable subscribers: I am appearing on the Kevin Gallagher

Show which will air on Tuesdays, March 17 and 24, at 7:30 pm on Charter Cable

21. The subject of both is: The Internet. Please tune in.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.chartercom.com/

http://www.com21.com/newspages/charter.html

http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/10138.html

http://www.currents.net/newstoday/98/02/18/news3.html

( This is the 94th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, "Movies on the Net" is the subject on tap. Stay tuned. Until

next week, happy travels through cyberspace.

Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People (including links to sites

mentioned in this article) can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail

comments and suggestions to: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com. )