Re: Vikings upset Karmazin

[dan.Strassberg@att.net]

As I understand it, one of the major technical problems 
at the moment is ISPs spotty deployment of multicast 
servers. If multicasting were universal, the required 
bandwidth would drop significantly. There is a method 
for bypassing unicast servers, but everyone who accesses 
a stream via a unicast server must receive his own 
stream. Everyone who accesses the stream via a multicast 
server can share a single stream.

Supposedly, AOL still uses unicast servers. Maybe Steve 
Case figures that if his customers could get decent 
audio, they'd just overload his modems. If that's his 
concern, he's trying to keep his subscribers from 
clogging the back end by making sure that streaming 
audio is unattrative to AOL users.

> As for the backend, speed and capacity of servers have been increasing 
> rapidly.  Installations of xDSL, ISDN and cable modems have exceeded 
> projections.  Wouldn't it be ironic to listen to Internet radio on a 
> wireless Internet connection?