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High-Def Could Choke Internet, ISPs Fear
By Larry Hendrick | May 15, 2006
This is something we are seeing at work first-hand. As more online services like full-fledged video become available, bandwidth usages will increase proportionally. The other night, the Redhead and I watched an episode of Lost we had missed. We headed over to ABCs online site and easily, and freely (with commercials) caught up with what happened.
In the article quite a few numbers are given, and by reading closely, you will find that they are from someone that doesn’t own or run an ISP. I don’t know how accurate the numbers are in Atlanta, but they are not even close in Texas. I have discussed this at length in another article, so there is no need to repeat it here, but let me say, I would love to be able to deliver DSL service for a cost of less than $45/circuit to the end user.
It is an interesting read though, so if you have the time, head over, then come back and tell me what you think.
My Way News - High-Def Could Choke Internet, ISPs Fear
NEW YORK (AP) - Every day, it seems, a new service pops up offering to send you video over the Internet. “Desperate Housewives,” Stephen Colbert heckling the president, clips of bad dancers at wedding parties: It’s all there.You may be up for it, but is the Internet?
The answer from the major Internet service providers, the telephone and cable companies, is “no.” Small clips are fine, but TV-quality and especially high-definition programming could make the Internet choke.
Most home Internet use is in brief bursts - an e-mail here, a Web page there. If people start watching streaming video like they watch TV - for hours at a time - that puts a strain on the Internet that it wasn’t designed for, ISPs say, and beefing up the Internet’s capacity to prevent that will be expensive.
Topics: Business, Technology |