Boston.com reports that ultra-fast broadband connections aren’t all they’re cracked up to because it really just moves the bottleneck…
The problem is that most of the Internet isn’t transmitting data fast enough to take advantage of such rapid broadband speeds, Entner said. If a server computer transmits an Internet video at, say, 20 million bits per second, having a 300-million-bits-a-second connection won’t make any difference. “The website you are connecting to is the bottleneck,” he said.
I experienced this phenomenon a couple of months ago when I went to my ISP to upload video. I learned quickly that the problem had not been my connection at home, or the connect at my nearby university (and alma mater) or the connect at the ISP office – the problem was the remote site. So I understand the problem – but is the answer to stick with the lowest common denominator?
Websites that are too slow for ultra-fast users will lose traffic. Then they will upgrade. It’s a competition that might help the US move forward in terms of broadband speeds. That’s the good news. Unfortunately for folks in underserved areas will suffer more as their connections fall farther behind in comparison to top line connections and websites strive to cater to the faster visitors. But perhaps it will create a demand that encourages other providers to increase their broadband.
Also – and the article alludes to this – home connections are generally not intended to support a single user…
Catherine Avgiris, executive vice president and general manager of communication and data services at rival Internet provider Comcast, said her company’s premium online offerings are mainly intended for homes where multiple family members engage in heavy Internet use.
“The average household has a laptop, has a gaming system, they have a tablet,” said Avgiris. “The more devices there are in the home, the better performance you get by having greater speed.”
With three kids, I also know this phenomenon well. And I sort of feel like if we had the broadband, we’d find a way to use it. And it would definitely open the door to running any kind of business from a residence.
I wonder how many people worry about the capacity of their web hosting service to deliver a quality download experience, especially those with lots of video on their sites? It would be interesting to know what the average YouTube server speed is.
I remember server speed and bandwidth being big issues for web hosting back in the Internet olden days when I worked at MRNet (1995-98). But I don’t see much about it these days. Although I think it’s more of an issue for collocated servers. Google sort of officially added “download speed” as part of their search engine ranking equation about a year ago so I suspect we’ll start seeing more people care about it.
Jim Boyd – Satellite user in Grand Marais sent me an email (and permission to share) with a good tip for slow home users…
A corollary to this: Make certain the equipment in your home is up to snuff. Our speeds are naturally slow because of satellite. But I was using an old router, too, and I upgraded to ensure there wasn’t a bottleneck in my own home. Got a slight bump out of it, but now I know I’m good at home.