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Then my next question is, how much bandwidth is available?
Depends on where you want to look. Do you mean the US backbone? If so, which tier 1 provider? At your local ISP? At the point where your ISP begins to split the bandwidth between your neighbors and you? Is your ISP multi-homed to different providers?
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Downstreams, what makes HD TV different?
Size of the stream. A single HD stream can measure between 3-5 Mbps per stream. Also depends on compression. While files can be big, they aren't constant. Let's go with a 3Mbps stream for a 2 hour movie. That's a 2.7GB file you just downloaded.
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That's Still on Coaxial, and/or Fiber too...(I understand the difference that internet is two ways, but if HDTV is on Fiber/Coaxial too, and aren't they downstreaming HD TV?)
Fiber/Coax is just a media, and HD is just a categorization for an RTP stream. All that matters is bps. The content is meaningless.
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How did we get HDTV quickly enough, but (what i'm going to call HD internet) ain't happening if it is expensive to lay down these wires?
They were planning to expand capacity. If there's capacity, people will fill it. The key is to try to outpace it. Most of the problems aren't at the backbone side, they're at your local ISP. They've got the pipe agreement with the tier 1 provider. You can't throttle inbound bandwidth, only outbound. Once it's reached your interface, you'd tapped. They request the peer throttle traffic. Otherwise, your ISP would be overloaded, and everyone loses.
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Google seems just fine laying down fiber in smaller cities such as Austin and St. Louis. Again, RCN was $50/mo for $50mbs with no issues during peak time in Chicago...on a coaxial. How is it, that AT&T is unable to provide a superior service with better wire (Fiber)?
I'd like to see Google's profitability as well on that one. Fiber/Coax/Copper is just media. It's about how the infrastructure is built out that matters. For example: I run 10G capable fiber to every user, except there are 10,000 users and they're actually only sharing a single 1G uplink to the Tier 1 provider. Or, I run 1G capable fiber to every user, for 5K users, and they share a 2G uplink. Which is actually better for the user?