Web TV sparks bandwidth crisis fears

Found on IT News on Saturday, 18 August 2007
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The internet is heading for a crash unless it increases its bandwidth capabilities, according to an analyst report.

Stan Schatt, research director at ABI, told Ars Technica: "Uploading bandwidth is going to have to increase, and the cable providers are going to get killed on bandwidth as HD programming becomes more commonplace."

Cisco found that American video websites currently transmit more data per month than the entire amount of traffic sent over the internet in 2000.

Orange revealed in an ASA investigation into adverts for its unlimited broadband service that as of 31 March 2007 only 1.09 percent of customers exceeded the fair usage policy limitation for its service.

Orange said that it logged a breach of fair usage as being more than 40GB in March 2007.

If an old highway is jammed on a daily basis, people call for new lanes to allow more traffic, not for less cars. However, if the tubes are getting filled, those in charge call for less traffic and a ban on traffic-intensive applications like Bittorrent. That's like driving happily on a bumpy road for the rest of your life. Unlimited bandwidth is advertised on every corner, but as soon as someone makes use of it, problems arise. What are 40GB/month these days? Not much. I've been below 40GB only twice this year; usually, traffic gets close to 50GB every month.