Randall Shimizu wrote:
I am not entirely certain the signal is being
displayed. But the upside is that the carriers are
upgrading their networks. We are going to see a ever
increasing compeitition, which will force all internet
providers to increase their bandwidth. Directv is
going to be delivering IPTV over WIMAX.
And you think they're going to give all of us that additional bandwidth
for free? Like the cable companies give us premium channels for free?
Like the free over-the-air TV broadcasts we'll get in 2009?
I see this as a yawn-big-deal issue. More bandwidth will always be
available, but only in the same sense that more was available to those
who could afford it when modem speeds increased from 110 Bd to 300 Bd.
Except then, aside from the cost of a new modem on either end, sending
stuff through the bigger pipe actually was free.
Besides, I don't care so much about how big the pipe is, but rather
what's going through it. With nearly a hundred channels on TV, I still
only watch a half dozen of them. Hell, I've got nearly three dozen tabs
in my Firefox home tab set, but rarely look at more than four or five of
those on a monthly basis. If those TV channels and Websites I don't
often view disappeared from the planet, my life would not be
significantly altered.
Sure, there's always new stuff to look at; I like exploring. But there
is a limit to even my time. And even though I'm a geek, I still often
find myself wondering what real practical use there is, in the end, of
all that time spent in front of a monitor. Especially since I no longer
get paid for it.
Bandwidth for the average Internet user is already fast enough, given
the available content. In fact, I think we are fast approaching
information overload for the masses. Too much information is no better
than too little. Too much useless information is worse than none. I
don't see people getting smarter, or more knowledgable about their world
proportionally to the time they spend being entertained by glowing
electrons.
And I can't forget that the motive of the carriers is not to provide
more information over that increased bandwidth, it's to provide more
content-consumers to themselves and their partners. The product is not
more bandwidth. The product is not more content. The product is me.
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
* Yeah, well it's a word now, cuz I just made it one! :-P
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