One thing about the access business. It isn't as though the cable and telco contestants can rivet their attention on each other, and ignore everybody else. 4G wireless, for example, sometimes is defined as an access featuring 1 Gbps for stationary users and 100 Mbps to mobile users. The cable industry's DOCSIS 3.0 specification, for example, will bond channels to provide downstream speeds up to 120 Mbps and upstream bandwidth in the neighborhood of 80 Mpbs, at least in the lab. In the real world, physical impairments of various types and the need to share that bandwidth across a base of users will, in practice, reduce the actual bandwidth any single user might be able to pay for. We would note that at least one U.S. telco, SureWest Communications, offers a 50 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth service today for any customer that will purchase SureWest's most-expensive bundle, including every video service, wireless, fixed line voice and Internet access.
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