MBone . . What ever happened to multicasting?

[heartofamerica1982-lug at yahoo.com]

A recent topic got be to thinking... what ever
happened to multicasting? 

Am I mistaken or what, but 
it seems to have gone by the wayside as most services
tout "on demand".

Or is it just waiting for IPv6 as no one implemented
it on the IPv4 networks?

Even though bandwidth is still cheap, It seems that
ISP's, broadcasters, and businesses would still want
to pursue it. After all the huge pipes seem to be
filling up with all the media out there (see below*. 

Everyone still is told they need a broadcast server,
or a big pipe, however, if the net supported
multicasting directly you would need no more than a
dsl or 128k connection. 

Businesses are always complaining about the superboal,
March Madness, and the olympics crashing there
networks. (they don't mind lost productivity since the
employees would be distracted either way). Businesses
are paying for broadcast servers to serve there
meetings, Podcasts, etc. DJ's are going to advertising
heavy services only for users to block ads, and *ISP's
are starting to limit or charge for large bandwidth
users. 

Why not push multicasting?

Is it being used and we don't know?
Where do Proxy servers come in on this?  
Heck should (is) the high bandwidth user be charged if
most of his traffic is within the same ISP (gaming,
filesharing/Bittorrent, etc.) thus saving outside link
bandwith. Ok granted it may slow a neighborhood down,
but its got multiple fibers to each neighborhood so it
saves a costly interconnection with another ISP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbone
http://www.savetz.com/mbone/

Patrick M. BLA/LMT-- Communications & Media Consult -- Massage Therapist 
Answerette/PnM Resources -- Follow me #: 800-901-1089