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The Last Mile

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The Last Mile

Broadband and the Next Internet Revolution

McGraw-Hill,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Profit from fat pipes.

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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Visionary

Recommendation

Five years from now, your refrigerator should be talking to you. Your television set won’t just offer you the usual slew of cable channels, but thousands of streaming Internet channels that will fill every conceivable market niche, need or want. Transmission paths will include DSL modems, cable modems, possible fiber optic links to the home and even transmission through power lines. Executives should start thinking now about how broadband will change the way their businesses work, the authors explain. So, if you’re trying to figure out how your business can benefit from the inevitable expansion of fat pipes, getAbstract.com recommends this book to you. Read it quickly, before the fridge asks for something to drink.

Summary

What is Broadband?

Anyone in a leadership position needs to understand how important broadband will be for the future of business. Broadband will change how your business operates. Broadband, which is a new kind of technology, would allow much more information to pass over current copper lines than is possible through the normal 56.0 or 28.8 modems. If you turn the current analog connection into a digital connection via broadband, then you will create a new kind of Internet experience that resembles cable television. Broadband would, in effect, create thousands of new channels and opportunities.

Right now the competition for broadband is between the cable companies, telephone companies and, possibly, utility providers, but only if certain technologies come on line. Because your cable companies and telephone companies are just a few miles from your home, the term last mile was coined in reference to this race.

The Types of Broadband Technologies

A number of competing broadband technologies are vying for home and business consumers. The most notable ones are:

  • Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) - ADSL can provide speeds of up to 1.5 mbs...

About the Authors

Jason Wolf  is the director of multimedia and Internet technology and regional director of research and development at MarchFIRST (formerly USWEB/CKS). An expert in collaborative unification of traditional multimedia and Internet technologies, he developed Internet marketing initiatives and multimedia projects for Nike, Apple, Levi’s and Visa. He also helped develop Shockwave for Macromedia. Natalie Zee is an interactive design director and co-founder of the research and development department at MarchFIRST. As an award-winning designer, she leads interactive Web projects for such clients as Apple, Levi’s and Visa. She also worked at Macromedia before joining MarchFIRST.

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