The FCC released a study that shows the average monthly bill for cable TV shot up by more than the nations overall inflation rate of 3 percent.

Cable basic only service climbed to 3.3 percent, while basic-plus rose 5.2 percent and expanded-basic rose 6.2 percent.

Now the bright side of this is that this extreme climb is in places with no competition. In locations where communities have allowed competition the rise was much smaller, but no stats could be found to compare.

Opening up competition in our local communities in the cable industry is a must. We have to allow other competition in to stop these local monopolies. As time goes on and with all the mergers in the telecomm industry, you may see a push in the upcoming years to move into the cable world by merging or purchasing some regional cable companies.

Would this improve competition? Not sure yet. At least now we have a choice of going satellite TV, DSL with the local phone company, as well as VOIP with our ISP or other provider. But what happens when the local phone company gets its mits in the cable pot?

The recent approval of the BellSouth and AT&T merger brings the largest of the former baby bells bakc under Ma Bell’s wing. This is the largest telecommunications merger in history.

I will say that the FCC did not blindly allow this to happen. AT&T had to make concessions such as give up some wireless spectrum, offer very low cost ($19.95) stand alone DSL access, and observe network neutrality.

The later being the most important concern to consumer advocates.

If you recall from a previous post “Is the Ma Bell Monopoly Back”, I amn ot a big fan of the recent mergers between these giant companies, especially involving AT&T.

The deregulation for some time has made the industry more competitive and prices drop. It allowed for smaller companies to remain competitive with the “big dogs”. It also allowed these larger companies to move into areas that they where not able to before such as high speed Internet service and cable services. What this deregulation did was allow the larger companies to gain a foothold into these other segments of the industry which are now ripe for the picking.

How competitive can we expect this market to be when the FCC is allowing the same thing to take place AGAIN that they tried to prevent with the breakup of Ma Bell in the early 80′s and the deregulation in 1997.

I do not beleive there is any big conspiracy by AT&T or any of the other players in the industry to rule the world or anything like that. I think they are doing what a business should naturally try and do and that is dominate the market. It is up to bodys like the FCC to ensure that dominance does not turn into a monopoly like it did before.

Now, I would like to address cable access to the Internet.

During the last few years, the cable companies have focused upgrading its existing infrastructure in order to deploy high-speed Internet access and VOIP over cable for homes and businesses.

It has started to become a user-friendly household source of affordable broadband Internet access for millions of people.
Residential users are the consumers who receive the most benefit from this technology.

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Due to the current inherent limitations of cable technology, it is not usually a viable solution for businesses.

These limitations include, but are not limited to the following:

Wiring (most businesses are not wired)
Congestion and delay (the more people using cable, the slower the service)
“shared” connectivity, security (your neighbors may be able to access your files),
Cable’s inability to support any type of web or email server.

Ultimately as cable grows in popularity small businesses will and are making the mistake of seeing cable as an alternative to DSL.

This is not the case and should be studied carefully and a business should seek the advice of an IT and Telecomm solutions provider and consultant.

In my post “What is DSL?”, I briefly discussed DSL.
We ended the post with a bulletized list of advantages and disadvantages of DSL.
I concluded with the last stated disadvantage of availability of DSL.

So first we will discuss the effect of distance on DSL and why this limits the availability of DSL.

DSL is a distance sensitive technology. As distance increases speed decreases.
The limit for ADSL, which is what most residential customers have, is just over 3.1 miles or 5 kilometers from the central office.

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Now, most people misinterpret this as being the distance from the brick and mortar phone company where they pay their bill.
Most of the time this is incorrect.

The central office can be something as simple as a little brick building by itself that contains switches and other equipment. It can also be a janitor’s closet that is rented by the phone company.
So disregard the distance to your provider’s main office as criteria for this determination.

Online tools, like those found at www.brochin.net, take some of the guesswork out of figuring out if DSL is available at your location.
Tools like the ones available at Brochin.net will also provide you a list of DSL providers for your area and their rates.

There are not too many areas that are near urban environments that do not have the ability to receive DSL service.

One of the most cost effective high-speed Internet connections is DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). There are different types of DSL services, but the most prominent is ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and SDSL (Single in-line Digital Subscriber line a.k.a Symmetric DSL).

ADSL is the most widely used in residential services and can be a cost effective solution for small businesses depending on their Internet access requirements. ADSL allows for a faster download than upload speed from the ISP. As most users typically download more than upload. ADSL also allows one to use the phone for voice conversations at the same time.

SDSL allows for equal download and upload speed. SDSL is mostly used in small businesses that require the transfer of larger files and uploading of information to remote hosts and servers.

No matter which type is used DSL works off the same basic principles. DSL uses POTS (Plain Old Telephone) lines already installed on the premises to transfer data. These POTS lines do not use near the capacity they are able to carry when carrying voice conversations. DSL uses this excess capacity to carry data to and from the Internet without disturbing analog phone conversations.

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There are two different standards used for ADSL. One is the official ANSI standard called DMT (Discrete Multi-Tone) and is the standard used on most installs today. The other standard is CAP (Carrier less Amplitude/Phase), which was used on earlier installations and is sometimes still used today.
To make a long explanation short, CAP standard divides the DSL signal on the telephone line into three distinct bands: Voice, Upload, and Download. DMT standard basically divides the POTS lines into 247 separate channels and passes your voice and data over the 247 separate channels. DMT is much more complex than this explanation lets on, but it is the simplest way to explain it that I know. That being said DMT is much more difficult to implement than CAP.

To end this article we will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of DSL.

Advantages of DSL are:
1.) With DSL you can leave your Internet connection open and still use the phone line for voice calls
2.) DSL speed is much higher than regular dial-up modems.
3.) DSL doesn’t necessarily require new wiring; it can use the phone line you already have.
4.) The company offering DSL usually offers the modem at no extra charge as part of the installation.

The disadvantages can be:
1.) The DSL connection works better when you are closer the Central Office.
2.) The DSL connection is faster for receiving data than it is for sending.
3.) DSL service is not available everywhere.