The desired solution for high speed data communications appears to be cable modem. Cable modem is capable of providing data rates as high as 56 Mbps, and is thus suitable for high speed file transfer, video teleconferencing and pay-per-view television. Further, cable modems may simultaneously provide high speed Internet access, digital television (such as pay-per-view) and digital telephony.
Although cable modems are used in a shared access system, wherein a plurality of subscribers compete for bandwidth over a common coaxial cable, any undesirable reduction in actual data rate is easily controlled simply by limiting the number of shared users on each system. In this manner, each user is assured of a sufficient data rate to provide uninterrupted video teleconferencing or pay-per-view television, for example.