Pipe dreams

You’ve heard the question a million times: I’m ready for broadband, but what should I get? Neighbors, friends and relatives pepper you with questions about price, speed and customer service. They turn to you because you were an early adopter. But that means you haven’t thought about the data pipe into your house for some time.

Since you signed up (likely for the first service available in your area), cable’s gotten faster, DSL’s gotten less expensive, satellite broadband doesn’t always require line of sight, and wireless ISPs are popping up to cover the dead zones. Your users are blinded by choices – from basic packages to supersized pipes with static IP addresses – from a wide range of providers.

With broadband options running amok and the landscape in flux, it’s time to revisit broadband – if not for yourself, then to help field those never-ending broadband questions.

Before you can give advice, you have to know your users’ needs. Are they simply checking e-mail and doing some casual Web browsing, or do they expect to connect their Xbox and trade multimedia files? Is the key consideration price or speed? Are emerging VoIP services enticing, or is e-mail still considered a newfangled contraption?

“Eighty percent of users are satisfied with basic services,” says Mike Wolf, principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR. “They don’t seek higher and higher speeds, and they wouldn’t necessarily know what to do if they had them.”

Because basic services can mean anything from e-mail to interactive gaming, it’s important to know your users. To help, give them a short quiz.

Life in the slow lane

If In-Stat/MDR’s Wolf is right, there are plenty of people who really don’t need broadband.

If you’re dealing with someone who’s satisfied with their current service or who is exceptionally cost-conscious, they probably have no reason to switch from dial-up. Chances are they’re questioning you about broadband to make conversation, or are looking for assurances that dial-up isn’t going away.

Recommendation: As DSL prices drop, recommend a low-tier DSL service, which is competitive with dial-up but offers better service.

Speed demons

Give speed demons a big enough pipe, and they’ll find the applications to fill it. Photo sharing, music swapping, streaming media, interactive gaming, VoIP and video on demand; they’re all over it.

As you start layering applications, the need for speed spikes. In terms of raw bandwidth, cable is still the champ. Just as the telcos upped their speeds to 1.5M bit/sec to match cable’s, cable companies upped the ante to 3M or even 4M bit/sec.

Both cable and DSL providers are courting speed demons. “This has become a price vs. speed game,” says Lindsay Schroth, an analyst with The Yankee Group. “DSL companies are dropping prices to compete with cable. Cable companies won’t drop their prices, so they respond by adding capacity.”

At the high end, Comcast and Adelphia each offer 3M bit/sec speeds for $42.95, and 4M bit/sec speeds for $52.95 and $59.95, respectively. DSL carriers don’t typically offer comparable speeds, but there are exceptions. SBC, for instance, offers 3M bit/sec for $36.99.

Recommendation: If price is most important, DSL wins out – especially if your user doesn’t plan to run new services such as voice and video. If he’s itching for VoIP, online gaming and video on demand, then cable is the only choice.

My home is my office

Nearly 44 million people in the U.S. – one-third of the workforce – will work at home at least part time this year, according to In-Stat/MDR. For these users, broadband is a given.

At-home workers are similar to speed demons because they access their corporate LANs from home and many aspects of the business world have moved online. Moreover, as real-time applications such as VoIP and teleconferencing are added to the mix, the need for consistent speed arises. But consistent speed is hard to measure.

Both cable and DSL are shared media, so if many people in your area are online at once, the connection speeds can slow down. Distance from the central office also affects throughput. DSL signals degrade over distance, but most cable offerings provide consistent throughput throughout their coverage areas.

Service providers all claim they have consistent speed, but an independent Web site, Broadband Reports, compares the performance of various providers. It also features price comparisons, speed charts and subscriber feedback. Bandwidth Place, offers tools for testing your connection speed.

But what if your user’s speed doesn’t meet his expectations? Residential service contracts offer speed estimates, but don’t guarantee specific levels. Customer service is difficult to quantify, although Broadband Reports does provide user reviews.

There are two options. Broadband providers have begun offering tiered services, which typically add 1M to 1.5M bit/sec downstream and 100K to 300K bit/sec upstream bandwidth for an extra $10 to 15 per month. But these service levels aren’t guaranteed either.

Recommendation: If your user works from home only a few hours per week and doesn’t run many latency-sensitive applications, residential DSL should fit the bill. But also ask whether this home office might eventually expand and move off-site. Commercial offices aren’t typically wired for cable, so if he doesn’t want to use different providers for home and work, choose DSL.

If the user teleworks frequently and relies on business tools such as online conferencing, then higher-bandwidth cable service is the better choice.

Recommend business-class service if the user runs a home business that includes several PCs and a Web server, or if he relies on Web- or videoconferencing. Business-class services offer static IP addressing and Web hosting, and usually better bidirectional throughput. Basic business-class services start at about $99.

Out in the country

“In the country” might be a misnomer because “rural and underserved” can mean anything from the far reaches of Montana to a new suburban ring where broadband has yet to penetrate.

Many underserved areas are rolling out wireless broadband, or fixed wireless, services. These Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) typically offer a “last-mile” Internet connection over unlicensed spectrum bands. Some require a clear line of sight to the tower, but newer wireless technologies don’t. Because these are community-based efforts, availability, pricing and speeds range considerably.

For example, Prairie iNet, which offers service in Iowa and Illinois, provides 512K bit/sec download and 200K bit/sec upload for $50 per month, plus set-up fees ranging from $200 to $500 depending on length of contract. For similar speeds from Teton Wireless, users pay $80 per month if they live in Montana, but only $40 if they live in Idaho. Teton Wireless also charges approximately $200 for equipment and installation.

A good place to find whether service is available in your area is the Broadband Wireless Exchange.

Another option is satellite broadband from providers such as Hughes Network Services (HNS) and StarBand. However, satellite service is more expensive than other broadband options.

DirecWay offers download at 400K bit/sec and upload at 56K bit/sec for $60, plus $600 for setup. For telecommuters, many satellite services don’t support VPN connections. StarBand offers a wider array of service plans, with equipment costs in the $400 to $600 range and monthly costs varying from $50 to $70, depending on contract length.

Recommendation: Fixed wireless is typically less expensive than satellite, but might require a clear line of sight to the tower. Otherwise, satellite might be your only option.

Competing needs

In the real world, users don’t fit into neat categories. Many households will have more than one type of user, say a kid who plays interactive games and parents content with light e-mailing. However, because broadband is fast becoming a commodity, it might make sense to defer to whomever needs the highest speeds. As more segments of our daily lives migrate online, there’s little chance that bandwidth will be wasted.