Wave Issue 9738 3/17/98 Article 7-01

*** Broadband

DSL and Cable Modems Will Not Solve Internet
Performance Problems
(February 13)

Despite current industry efforts to increase Internet
bandwidth over "the last mile" to the home or office,
the high-speed promises of new technologies such as
DSL and cable modems will not be fulfilled until the
Internet itself is able to deliver traffic at such
high speeds. Even though high-speed modems may
promise more, they cannot deliver web content to
users any faster than the Internet's 40kbps average
speed limit will allow according to Federal
Communications Commission Chairman William E.
Kennard.

According to Jim Barrick, vice president and chief
technical officer of Keynote Systems, the major
performance slowdowns occur in the Internet
infrastructure, primarily at the on-ramps, off-ramps
and interconnection, or switching, points between
Internet providers where congestion and packet loss
frequently occur. Significant Internet performance
improvements require solutions in several areas:

intelligent caching of popular web content much
closer to user populations;
duplicating popular web sites at multiple "mirrored"
locations around the Internet;
greater use of IP multicasting for distributing
popular web content;
increased implementation of private peering
(interconnections) between backbone providers;
improved efficiency of peering at public
interconnections such as MAE-West and MAE-East;
performance-aware web site designs that minimize
download times for users;
widespread adoption of HTTP version 1.1 in web
servers and web browsers.

Keynote Systems calculated the true speed of the
Internet as experienced by World Wide Web users based
on millions of performance measurements made around
the clock by downloading pages from web sites on 34
Internet backbones to 30 measurement locations in
major metropolitan areas around the United States.

www.keynote

Intertainer Unveils World's First Interactive
Broadband Service for On-Demand Delivery of Full-
Motion Video-Based Entertainment.
(February 11)

Intertainer, Inc. unveiled the world's first
interactive broadband service for on-demand delivery
of high quality, full-motion, video-based
entertainment programming and consumer-based shopping
to the television or personal computer. The
"Intertainer" service is currently in beta testing in
two locations. Intertainer offers consumers the
unique ability to choose music, movies, television,
fashion, books and video games, delivered on-demand
in full-motion, full-screen video to a computer or
television. Intertainer subscribers need only a
multimedia-capable PC and access to one of the
emerging broadband platforms, including cable modems
and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL).
Intelligent agenting software will act as a "personal
assistant" for Intertainer users by learning a user's
preferences and recommending selections. For the
first time, users can build their own world of
entertainment. Intertainer has assembled its
technical team from technology leaders such as
Sybase, Informix, Pacific Telesis Labs and Apple
Computer.

In November 1997, Intertainer commenced beta testing
of the service employing Pacific Bell's Fast Trak
ADSL system. The trial is operating in three Central
Offices in northern California. A second test,
beginning in February 1998, is taking place in Buena
Park, Calif. in conjunction with Comcast's cable
modem system. Intertainer plans to distribute the
service to the cable modem and ADSL markets by the
third quarter of 1998.