Comments on: With Broadband, Quality Should Trump Penetration

By: OECD: U.S. Broadband Is Big But It Needs to Be Better

OECD: U.S. Broadband Is Big But It Needs to Be Better — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:31:56 +0000

[...] That dominance has enabled the U.S. to be a top market for launching new broadband-based services as innovative companies can use them to form and subsequently gain widespread adoption. It’s one of the reasons that success stories like Twitter and Facebook were built here. But as the world transitions to a more interactive and video-based web, it’s not enough to have a huge number of connections — we need high-quality connections. [...]

By: Tim Mason

Tim Mason — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:20:31 +0000

Quality and penetration needs to be balanced. That balance can come from competing technologies to deliver the connection. Personally, I like the flexibility and cost efficiencies of wireless. I agree with Broadband guy that 80% at 2Mbps is better than mega bandwidth for 40% of the population and that plays well for wireless. While video is important, and an ever increasing drain on bandwidth, it’s not the real benefit of access. Some of the video may be distance learning or online education which could be translated as having an economic or overall society value. I would argue that video as an entertainment element, while heavily consumed, is offset by the intrinsic value of the content that is available with broadband connectivity. Connecting 4% may have more value than just video entertainment.

By: Broadband Guy

Broadband Guy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:39:50 +0000

Disagree that quality should trump penetration! Better 80% of people have 2Mbps connections that 40% having 50Mbps connections.

By: Ted Thonus

Ted Thonus — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:58:49 +0000

It’s facinating to me that many of the cable providers are increasing their bandwidth offerings to crazy levels. I agree with you that streaming video is the next driver for broadband growth. In the Denver Post today they explained how Comcast is doubling download speeds for the majority of its customers from 6 to 12 Mbps for no additional charge. The problem is that for many businesses outside of their footprint this means nothing. Broadband penetration is never going to be great in a country like the USA where there are huge wide open places. Places like S. Korea and Singapore will always have huge penetration because of the high populations of residents in concentrated areas. Places where there is no “living in the country” so to speak.

By: The Missing Link | Cottonwood Communications

The Missing Link | Cottonwood Communications — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:45:16 +0000

[...] Walsh covers the topic (or lack) of broadband penetration well in his GIGAOM blog. If you could imagine climbing up a ladder then realizing that one of the rungs is missing [...]

By: Linkpost | 9.20.2009 | L&C Tech Talk

Linkpost | 9.20.2009 | L&C Tech Talk — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:21:22 +0000

[...] With Broadband, Quality Should Trump Penetration – Counting the number of people who have broadband is not the best way to judge high-speed [...]

By: Jason Fry

Jason Fry — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:00:08 +0000

As long as there is a oligopoly with a few big ISP’s no matter purposefully put up roadblocks such as traffic shaping and unreasonable caps, the government initiative will only accomplish in wasting taxpayer’s dollars, and help the corporations creating the problem in the first place.

No reliable information has been published to date regarding bandwidth constraints because these companies refuse to comply with the government requests for an independent review. Instead they insist that the information they provide is good enough.

By: Kieran

Kieran — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:50:07 +0000

I wouldn’t say that CDNs “bypass the Internet” except Akamai and a few ISP run CDNs. There might be private connectivity but that’s no different to any organisation doing so.