Yes, modems still matter. Not everyone in the world is in the U.S., and not all sites are specific to the U.S. There’s something called “the rest of the world”, look it up.
I am from South Asia and here very few people have broadband internet. SO, for us a webpage of 500KBPS+ is a bit difficult to load fast and work on it. So, I guess the days of modem is not gone- not in my part of the world yet.
It depends if you give a **()(^$##!! about the ‘financially challenged’. Here in job-poor Portland OR, I have plenty of my friends still stuck on dial-up. . . not that they want to, that’s for sure. But the leap from $8 to $50 a month is just too much for many people, due to the high prices that our ‘free market’ generates.
Other countries are blowing us away with broadband proliferation due to subsidizing high speed internet, just like highways other critical infrastructure. I remember reading in Japan its $10 a month for 10mbps+??? Why are WE not doing this??? Because of crap like the state of Louisiana that actually OUTLAWS free municipal wi-fi (a nice political payback for the big donations from Comcast, etc.)
When I was in Michigan in 2001, ATTBI internet was the only high-speed connect in town. I moved all the way across the country to Portland, Oregon and guess who also was the only game in town? When they sold out to Comcast, the first thing Comcast did was hike rates by $12 a month! Qwest DSL eventually came int othe market with 1/4 the speed of Comcast, but charges only like $10-15 less a month so $40 - 50 a month is still way too high for many people.
I had to sacrifice having cable TV to afford broadband, myself, and I will be screwed on that once they shut down the analog signals in the next few years (when you must have digital TV connect or else… . )
As everything else in the U.$. from the justice system to health care . . .if you don’t have the $$$ you are left out … . . . sigh
A little offtopic, but Ajax(-if done right) applications, should decrease the amount of data sent to/from the webserver.
Oh, and I almost forgot rural folk. Again, due to the wisdom of our free market ber alles system, they are left out because companies won’t invest in the lines to reach them. Its not profitable enough for them as people are too spaced apart so they don’t bother.
I just wonder as we continue to fall in ranking compared to other nations in broadband proliferation, if things will ever change? (probably not. . . look at our infant mortality rates compared to other industrialized nations. …an obvious result of our ‘free market’ health care system)
We whine all the time about not having enough of the populace interested in math and science, with us falling behind the rest of the world. But we won’t invest in the very infrastructure to help get people involved and educated??
So, are we just OK with having nations like India and China eventually surpass us in an educated populace, because they WILL provide broadband en masse? yikes. . . . .
Still have mine - for the rare occassion I need to send or receive a fax.
No practical alternative as far as I can see (last time I checked web-based fax services were absurdly overpriced for regular users let alone what I need). Still cheaper than a fax machine even if I didn’t have one to begin with.
It’s funny how your raving about 42% have broadband access but not looking at it from the other side. 58%, the majority, use dial-up, or at least non-broadband. Do modems matter? You betcha’.
Do modems still matter?
…they do… significant portions of the population either cannot afford broadband access or simply don’t have it available to them (remoteness, ancient telco lines, etc).
With complete honesty I can say that my experience on the web over past few years has been that designers have discarded any notion of careful, thoughtful or (god forbid) compact coding/design. Less is more. This is true in design and coding. Not everyone really wants a 10MB flash presentation filling their screen.
yes they still matter the fact is that many communities cannot get a good highspeed internet connection thought verizon was going to do it using fios to get highspeed in smalltowns it has never worked with them many times just installing it in large urban areas instead of its intent this is the only way i get an internet connection
broadband is not available here! you would be shocked how many places dont have broadband availability; its not just farm country. its the burbs. its pathetic; dont use the bathroom when you go to the usa, they are underdeveloped, backwater, hookworm infested, no broadband having freaks!
I think we should cater to just the broadband community in an effort to get everyone up to speed. It’s about time we become more advanced like in South Korea where broadband is commonplace.
Thanks Miz J!!! I bet it would be cool if the guvment would just pass one of them laws that’d make them big ol’ mean companies just go ahead and pay for our food too. I mean China has free food too right? And I’d like one of them new HDTV’s too. They should give us that. You’re really on the right track Miz J! I really hate having to make efforts and changes in my life to have good things. Big daddy guvment should just give it to me. I love it!!!
I’m in rural Virginia and I’ll be lucky to see anything faster then 28k8 dialup in the next 15-20 years.
America is not the world. There are PLENTY of places NOT in America where people haven’t even heard of broadband, or even dialup. Could you be MORE insular?
USA is not the whole world. Did you know it? So, if you only care about north-american broadband connection you will be denying access to a lot of users around the world.
I created and maintained my site from 1998 until November, 2005, using only dial-up connections. For the past 6 months, I’ve had DSL, but since the entire world is my site’s target audience, and since the vast majority of the entire world is still using slow Internet connections, I will continue to do the extra work required to make my site friendly to dial-up users.
I work at a company that sells products to businesses which in turn sell the products to farmers and other people in rural areas around the world. Probably 99% of our customers were on dialup until about two years ago. Remember 14.4K modems? I do.
::shudder::
Anyhow, I also have a few friends who keep modems handy for when they travel, just in case a hotel doesn’t have high-speed…there’s always a phone line!
That said, it’s not the US government’s job to provide net access. Nor is high speed access a fundamental human right.
Finally, I really don’t think it was Jeff’s intention to be “insular” so maybe some of ya’ll need to chill out a bit.
Of course modems still matter. With most people unable to get broadband just 4 or 5 miles outside a major metropolitan area the only thing they have left to turn to is dial-up.
Cable isn’t available everywhere. DSL is only as good as you are close to the central office. Satellite is just about the worse thing in the world, but is a stand-in for dial-up when you can’t get phone service. Then there are the few left out there that have radio towers, microwave, etc. All in all, Dial-up will be around for another 5-10 years, or at least until someone finds a broadband solution that is as simple as dial-up.
Of course modems still matter. I’m in rural Pennsylvania, and broadband is still not economically viable around here, ie the increased speed and productivity doesn’t quite yet offset the artificially high price.
And as previously mentioned, 42% does not a majority constitute.
I have 3 basic choices for internet access. Dialup, ISDN, or T1. If you only support broadband users you loose not only the public that has not upgraded yet, but also those who cannot upgrade yet. That is still a reasonably large portion of the population.