Intellectual Property Law

Will Video Break the Internet? Nah, But Still...

By Cynthia Brumfield

The same question rears its head from time to time: will the glut of Internet video break the Internet, at least in the U.S. (particularly now that Disney CEO Bob Iger says that the computer, not the TV, will dominate video entertainment?) The exaflood of Internet usage is on its way, this New York Times piece reminds us yet again, but concludes that the traffic surge is more a "looming challenge than an impending catastrophe."

Still, this is a great springboard for noting that we've got three of the nation's top experts lined up at next week's Internet Video Policy Symposium to discuss this very matter. On a panel entitled "Video is a Bandwidth Hog: Should Broadband Policies Pursue More Capacity?" former FCC Chief Economist Gerry Faulhaber, networking pioneer and former FCC Chief Economist and iGrowth Global's Scott Wallsten will dig into the notion that perhaps we should make increased broadband capacity a national priority. We've also landed as our keynote luncheon speaker outgoing acting NTIA chief Meredith Attwell Baker, who'll lend some insight from the Administration's perspective on this issue.

One Cisco exec (Cisco was once a key member of a lobbying group that advocated making 100 Mbps connections a national policy goal) is quoted in the article that it's kind of embarassing to explain in Taiwan why his "premium" Internet connection is half as fast and costs more than the high-speed service in that country. With the amount of Internet video escalating on a daily basis, it's going to become increasingly embarassing to explain that typical U.S. broadband speeds hover around 3 Mbps, with a good chunk of the user base making do on far less than that.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).