Date: Fri 05-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-Charter-cable-web-access

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE: Cable Internet -- Update

By Bob Brand

In early 1998, an interview with Joe Romano, Charter Communications' Internet

sales manager, revealed that cable Internet access was coming to Newtown in

early 1999. Here is an update.

A home Internet user can obtain high-speed access (if available) to the

Internet in four ways: ISDN (phone line), xSDL (phone line), DirectPC

(satellite dish), or cable. In Newtown, Internet cable (I-cable) access holds

the most cost-effective choice. It was disappointing to learn there is a

delay.

Charter rolled out I-cable to Southbury/Woodbury in May of 1998, Trumbull in

mid-October and Monroe in December. Currently, Newtown is scheduled for June.

The installations will finish with, Brookfield October, 1999, New Fairfield

November, 1999 and finally New Milford December, 1999.

Across The Country

After successful trials in Riverside and Pasadena California and bolstered by

the Southbury/Woodbury installations, Charter is launching I-cable at several

locations in the Midwest. (It is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.) This

comes at a time when the largest I-cable provider, @Home, has been hit with

"bad press" precipitated by loud complaints about poor service and unfulfilled

promises from customers feeling shortchanged.

Hartford, Connecticut has been at the epicenter of one @Home cyber-I-quake.

The national press picked up the story. Similar complaints were echoed on the

CFUG (Connecticut Free Unix Group) listserv.

Romano, while not revealing the number of I-cable subscribers, is quick to

point out that Charter takes a more cautious approach to opening the flood

gate of broad bandwidth, the source of much of the grousing about @Home. He

states that Charter does not solicit commercial accounts currently. Charter

wants to obtain a better understanding of the bandwidth demands from home

users before possibly facing the potential ire of e-commerce site owners

bitter about sluggish website performance.

While Charter provides the glass fiber that delivers the TCP/IP packets to the

user's home, Earthlink is the ISP (Internet Service Provider). A visit to the

Earthlink Cable Modem FAQ (frequently asked questions) website reveals

woefully out of date information. While Earthlink acknowledges the

relationship with Charter, it appears the site was not updated since

September, 1997.

The Cost Of Access

The monthly bill from Charter reflects the speed of service: $29.95 per month

for 256Kbps service or $49.95 per month for 512Kbps service. By year-end,

768Kbps, 1 Mbps and 2Mbps services will be available. Cable service charges

are reduced 10 percent if I-cable is installed. The one-time cost of cable

modem installation is $149; however, a discount up to $99 is in effect until

the end of 1999. If the homeowner has an Ethernet card installed (such as iMac

users), Charter takes off another $45. The cable modem, COM21's commUNITY's

Access external cable modem costs $299 to purchase or $15/mo to rent. It has

the capacity to deliver speeds up to a whopping 28Mbps. In addition, it comes

equipped with a telephone connection port. Although Charter does not use this

feature yet, Charter expects to deliver VoIP (voice over IP). This would

deliver an additional phone line into the home. Currently VoIP quality via the

raw Internet (latency delays being the major problem) is too low to be of

general interest. This is likely to change one day.

Installation Details

When ordering I-cable from Charter, two representatives arrive. The Charter

technician installs a splitter on the incoming feed that allows incoming

bandwidth to be shared by the TV cable box and the I-modem. Since the I-net

packets arrive on a separate frequency, TV cable feels no impact. The second

installer, an employee of ComPath Company, Fairfax, Va. (operating from a

local branch in Bloomfield), runs the wiring to the cable modem, installs the

Ethernet card, runs any additional wiring needed to link the computer and

installs network software. In addition, file sharing settings and

communication between cable modems are disabled. (This is done for security

measures.)

Romano estimates the process takes about two hours for routine installations.

Geek Stuff

Presently, Charter provides the I-connection with a static IP address.

However, as the system stabilizes, all customers will have dynamic address

connections. A static address will be an added cost option in the future. Keep

in mind a static IP address is required for website hosting. (Note: the very

low cost of a Linux/freeBSD system makes this a strong attraction for "amateur

ISPs." Stay tuned.)

WebTV Knock-off

Charter provides a service called WorldGate. It is a Web-TV look-alike but

cheaper. With no equipment to buy, the standard cable box is replaced with a

unit with the same outward appearance. Additional circuitry in the box and a

wireless keyboard (no charge) allows technology challenged channel surfers to

join the cyber-age. Unlike Web-TV, no outside ISP (or additional phone line)

is required. The cost is only $9.95/mo and is further discounted to $6.95/mo

for premium package cable subscribers. (Early-bird discounts are in effect.)

Free E-mail, unlimited Net surfing usage, and high speed Internet access make

WorldGate a "no brainer switcheroo" for WebTV users.

The @Home Fallout

Hopefully, cable companies who venture into the "Internet feed" business will

learn a lesson from bad publicity @Home brought upon itself with AOL-esque

over-selling bandwidth. Since there is only one chance to make a good first

impression, Charter appears headed down the right path. The high profile of

issues related to the Internet results in the rapid spread of bad news when it

comes to problems with broad bandwidth availability.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.chartercom.com/

http://www.earthlink.net

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31414,00.html

http://www.compath.com/

(This is the 140th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, Intel Chip ID and Privacy is the subject on tap. Stay tuned.

Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet

Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail

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