[e2e] The e2e cost of bandwidth

[Black_David at emc.com]

> > For a panel, I'm trying to get some quotable data on bandwidth 
> > prices/costs for commercial users of modest size. (Thus, a DSL that's 
> > oversubscribed 100:1 doesn't count.) So far, I'm finding mostly 
> > breathless hype on how much bandwidth prices have fallen, but 
> > no real data.

I believe the breathless hype is mostly about long-haul/backbone bandwidth
- assuming that one can get to a major fiber POP, there are apparently lots
of dark fiber and lit-but-unused lambdas available.  A place to find more
serious economic hand-wringing is www.cookreport.com .

> > To provide some counter-intuitive data that begs to be contradicted: 
> > http://www.coop.net, a not-for-profit cooperative ISP in Colorado.

There are two crucial things to keep in mind about that data:
(1) It's for last-mile bandwidth, not long-haul/backbone.
(2) The prices are for a T1, which is expensive if one is only trying to
	move data.  For last-mile data bandwidth, one should look at DSL,
	as full DSL has about the same data bandwidth as a T1, but can't be
	plugged into a PBX to carry POTS voice calls (which are a major cash
	cow for local phone companies).

Thanks,
--David
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David L. Black, Senior Technologist
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