13 Dec
The Immanent Bandwidth Wars
As internet service providers begin to offer customers faster speeds, a new area of competition is underway. Initially, the race was to provide the fastest possible internet service. Of late the speed race has outpaced the demands of users’ computers. This has created a new variable for internet service provider. The bandwidth cap is quickly becoming the new battlegrounds over which these companies will compete.
There are cost limitations on the amount of bandwidth a consumer may use in a month. While users may sometimes feel that there is a big business conspiracy that prevents them from getting their desired monthly bandwidth caps at a comfortable cost, in reality there are hardware costs involved in getting data from the internet to your computer at the speeds we’ve become accustomed to. However, prices are usually determined by the amount a customer is willing to pay for a product. Currently, the costs being charged by most internet service providers meet the needs of consumers. However, a change in user behavior looms on the horizon that inevitability threatens the current comfortable footing on which service providers build their business plans. The average consumer will eventually want to watch high definition TV content on their computer. This will be the death knell of the cable television station.
While cable companies have a vested interest in forestalling the inevitable by limiting monthly bandwidth, they will be unable to maintain control of the market forever. Wireless internet will soon be available all over major population centers at blinding speeds. This will make it nearly impossible for the transition to online media consumption to be prevented.
This will be great for the consumer. As companies start to boast that you get more bandwidth for your money, these caps will increase very quickly. Companies that provide hardware to internet service providers will be forced to lower their prices as well. This is just the way of the world.
With all of the many methods of transferring data, there will be a huge focus on value. For the consumer who desires to view high quality videos, this will be a dramatic improvement to the quality of life. High quality content inevitably leads to higher bandwidth demands.
Bandwidth limits will also have an affect on the quality of content made. For example, most current media files need to be compressed to meet bandwidth limits. If it becomes possible to send more data at faster speeds, these limitations would melt away. This may lead to new advancements in music recording software. Why not create massive music files if they can be transferred very quickly? It’s the same for video files and any other content that people may attempt to share online. If distributers can move bigger files, then movie files would be available in increased quality. Over time this will allow for serious growth in the quality of audio and video files.
Online games will benefit from this boom too. As data transfer rates explode, you can expect games to take full advantage of all the extra bandwidth. Online games may never tie up as much bandwidth as streaming video or music, but the extra capacity can surely be put to use in some way.
There is an exciting future for online content. While many whine about current bandwidth caps, we are not far away from a race between providers to deliver the best value for the money. In the end, this will mean great things for the consumer of high quality online content.
Gregg Housh holds the position of Technician Manager at Geek Choice. At Geek Choice we solve computer problems such as: Slow computer, Virus Removal, Spyware Removal, Computer startup problems, and much more.
