I Can’t Drive 55 (Mbps, that is)
Steve Lohr wrote a great article about the growth of Internet congestion on Thursday in the New York Times. In the article, Steve focuses on the Internet traffic jam from the consumer perspective but I was struck more by the issues Internet congestion raises on the business side. The fact that high-bandwidth services like video are starting to outstrip the infrastructure on which they run has significant consequences for both the service providers and the carriers who increasingly rely on new services for growth.
Apple and AT&T learned this the hard way when they launched the iPhone in the U.S. on AT&T’s weak but ubiquitous EDGE Network. Comcast is learning it the hard way as it invokes the wrath of net neutrality advocates and the FCC by throttling P2P services to best manage its network traffic. And we’re just at the beginning of the Internet’s congestion. For service providers and carriers, the most significant ramifications of Internet traffic jams are crippled service launches and service quality and the very real loss of revenue, customers and brand strength they represent.
It’s time to start planning, folks!
