The book explains the historical background that influenced the design of today's residential broadband systems.

These opinions are not necessarily those of my employer.

I think the author did a fine job of explaining the applications and markets for residential broadband. The argument is lucid and reasonably concise.

I had a lot of trouble following the information about networking protocol. The pros and cons of the various appoaches were not clearly explained. The interlinking of data from the various protocols is also not well explained.

Information about the current physical plant bottlenecks was meager. Digital satellite broadband service is simply dismissed as too expensive, with no corroboration. The claim that ADSL will win out over cable modems in the medium term and keep hold of the broadband pipeline until we get fiber to the home seems both unsubstantiated and self serving. The relationship between available signal frequency bandwidth and Mpbs is not covered.

I expect that the level of interest in this topic will give Mr. Maxwell the opportunity for at least a 2nd edition. I wish him a tough, unflinching editor.

I bought this book on an impulse buy due to the interesting title (I had a gift certificate that was about to expire) As a networking consultant, I have noticed that books on ADSL, cable modems and other high speed networking technology are needlessly verbose just to make for a thick tome.

This book is one of a refrshing new breed that explains technologies clearly without dumbing it down. I found myself reading Residential Broadband like one would read a suspenseful novel, I couldn't put it down! I was surprised how it could be so user-friendly yet get very deep technically. This book is what a tech book should be, easy to read, brief, yet thorough.

Highly recommended.