Last mile

The last mile' is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. Usually referred to by the telecommunications and cable television industries, it is typically seen as an expensive challenge because "fanning out" wires and cables is a considerable physical undertaking. In countries employing the metric (as opposed to the imperial) measurement system, the phrase "last kilometre" is sometimes used.

“Last-mile” Internet service providers offer the network connections that link end users to the wider Internet. By connecting its end-user customers to the many networks comprising the Internet backbone, an ISP provides its customers access to the end-user computers of any other ISP in the world connected to that backbone. Computer

users in the United States have had nearly ubiquitous last-mile access to dial-up Internet connections of 56 to 280 Kbps since the late 1990s through telephone modems. In recent years, faster broadband connections have supplanted dial-up service for a rapidly growing number of computer users who demand faster access to the increasingly sophisticated and data-rich content and applications available on the Internet.

Principally, end users receive last-mile broadband Internet service through coaxial cable wireline or upgraded copper digital subscriber wireline connections; other platforms, such as fiber-optic wirelines, wireless, satellite, and broadband over powerlines, are also increasingly available to connect end users to the Internet.

Basic residential service packages are typically available on a flat-rate basis to home computer users. ISPs may require that end users with more demanding needs, like a medium or large business, purchase a business-class or other type of premium service package. In addition, end users can purchase for a premium fee access to a specialized virtual private network (“VPN”) offering a defined quality-of-service level over a reserved portion of an ISP’s network.

Last-mile broadband wireline architecture can take various forms. A last-mile ISP can extend a fiber-optic wireline from a backbone connection to either a neighborhood node, to the curb of a premise, or all the way to the end user’s premise. If the fiber runs only to the node or curb, the ISP can then use a cable or DSL connection for the remaining distance to the end user’s premise. DSL wirelines provide a dedicated amount of bandwidth to each end user, but can transmit data up to only about three miles without the use of a repeater. Accordingly, transmission speeds can vary depending on an end user’s distance from a repeater. Cable wirelines offer shared bandwidth among many customers. Thus, the transmission speed for an individual cable modem customer can vary with the number of customers who are using the network simultaneously.

Last-mile wireless networks using wireless fidelity (“Wi-Fi”) or worldwide interoperability for microwave access (“Wi MAX”) technologies can be set up by deploying multiple antennas on street lights, traffic signals, and buildings, so that multiple wireless hotspots overlap each other to form a continuous “mesh” network of wireless signals. An initial connection to a backbone network also must be made in order to provide access to the wider Internet.77 Several major telecommunications companies also offer mobile wireless Internet services over their wireless phone networks.78 Three satellite providers offer broadband Internet service via satellite.79 An end user must hava computer or other device that is configured for wireless Internet use to access these networks. In addition, there are now over forty deployments of broadband-over-powerline technologies in the U.S., most of which are in trial stages.80

Today’s last-mile networks generally are partitioned asymmetrically to provide more bandwidth for data traveling from an ISP’s facilities to the end user’s computer (“downstream”) than in the other direction (“upstream”). Typically, this is done because end users request much more data from other server computers than they, themselves, send out.81 As a result, asymmetric architecture may constrain content and applications that require the end user simultaneously to send and receive content at the same speeds

and volumes, such as two-way video transmissions.82 Also, ISPs have the technical capability to reserve portions of last-mile bandwidth for specific applications.83