Re: multicast (was Re: Readiness for IPV6)

[Leo Bicknell <bicknell () ufp org>]

In a message written on Tue, Jul 09, 2002 at 10:06:10AM -0500, Chris Parker wrote:
> > My own view is that customers don't want it, because end users
> > don't have it.  Dial up users will probably never get multicast.
>
> Yahoo/Broadcast.com pushed this pretty heavily.  MS's own media player
> supports multicast, so there definitely a *lot* of clients out there.

There is a lot of client _SOFTWARE_ that supports it.  There are very
few clients on multicast enabled networks.

> There are a list of providers supporting multicast in conjunction with
> Yahoo/Broadcast.com found at:
>
> http://www.broadcast.com/mcisp/
>
> I see quite a few cable and dialup providers on there ( and I work for
> one of 'em... )

It's a cute list.  Where's AT&T (with all the old @Home customers)?
Where AOL?  Don't see UUNet either.

Almost as important, people like Sprint are on the list.  Last I
checked (admittedly, over a year ago) there was no multicast for
Sprint DSL customers, and Sprint high speed customers had to
specifically request it, it was not turned on by default.  Result,
less than 1% of Sprint's customers actually had it turned on, I
believe.

I'd be suprised if 1% of _residential end users_ were on multicast
enabled networks today.  Very surprised.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell () ufp org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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