ISPs Are Boosting Upstream Speeds, But Where Are the Services?

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:00:37 +0000

Internet service providers are beginning to focus on upstream speeds as subscribers change their online behavior from consuming web content to producing it. I’ve written how upstream demand is on the rise thanks to online storage services, video uploads and file sharing, but for people to truly pay attention to their upstream speeds, someone needs to build products that get everyday consumers to experience true pipe envy.

When it came to accessing the web, email and basic browsers paved the way for people to sign up for dial-up. Broadband adoption followed the introduction of better online content and services. Less than two years after Apple launched its iTunes service in April 2003, broadband adoption surpassed dial-up. Several ISPs have told me that movies and music downloads from iTunes have significantly increased the data traveling over the networks. Video streaming is now driving consumers to sign up for even faster broadband services. Video is also boosting upstream data, which is why Cisco is so pumped about its purchase of the Flip camera maker Pure Digital. (More demand for bandwidth on the upload and download side means Cisco can sell more gear.)

In an article I wrote over at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), I explain how various networks can handle upstream traffic, and list services that may get consumers to both demand (and pay for) fatter upstream pipes. Uploading video is just the beginning. Broadband burglar alarms, home telepresence, and medical monitoring are all ideas, but readers, what else is out there? These aren’t the dot-com bubble years. Operators won’t invest in upstream capacity unless users want to pay for it. What will make you upgrade?

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The Coming Upstream Revolution. And We Need It

Stacey Higginbotham — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:05:39 +0000

Most consumers pay some attention to their downstream bandwidth speeds, which can affect how quickly iTunes files finish downloading or the quality of movie streaming, but upstream speeds have never been as big of an issue. That’s clearly starting to change as Internet service providers like Verizon and Qwest offer data packages with increased upstream speeds so users can upload information faster. These boosts in speeds are following an increase in uploading activity and could change the landscape for service providers and startups.

Demand for upstream bandwidth is growing. Floyd Wagoner, a director of marketing and communications for Motorola Access Networks Solutions, said in an interview today that a U.S. cable provider has seen peak upstream bandwidth use increase by 24 percent from 2007 to 2008. The same provider saw average upstream bandwidth use increase by 17 percent. The unnamed cable provider was only measuring upstream use at 10,000 subscriber homes, but the point of the monitoring was to help forecast the cable company’s network buildout and customer demand, so the sample is assumed to be fairly representative.

Even though Motorola, which sells equipment to cable providers, benefits from an increase in network demand, I see little reason to doubt it on this. We’ve pointed out how online video uploads and file storage in the cloud are boosting our desire for faster upstream speeds and our use of upstream bandwidth. Over at NewTeeVee Liz reports that Facebook receives some 415,000 video uploads per day, while people upload 20 hours of video to YouTube per minute. And don’t forget about online storage services like Mozy or Carbonite, which are also growing. The numbers tell us that either more people are contributing content to the web, or that the few who do contribute are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth.

Figuring out which is which will have big implications for the way ISPs think about their networks. You can place restrictions and caps on the few, but if this is a widespread movement of people putting their lives online (and I think it is) then ISPs are going to have to start pushing the limits on upstream speeds and capacity. Verizon, with its fiber-to-the-home strategy, is so far in the best position to provide fat upstream pipes, but the cable guys could allocate more of their RF resources to data services (as opposed to video) and use DOCSIS 3.0 to bond together fatter upstream pipes and catch up. The straight DSL lines are going to have problems, but AT&T has told me that its fiber-to-the-node products can offer symmetrical upstream speeds if needed.

That’s the provider side, but for startups there’s also an opportunity to offer products and services that take advantage of consumers’ willingness and potential ability to upload larger files. Posting keyboard cat videos or even video conferencing is just the beginning.

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ISPs Are Boosting Upstream Speeds, But Where Are the Services?

The Coming Upstream Revolution. And We Need It