Where Are Our Blistering Broadband Speeds?

We hear about the benefits of high speed broadband all the time. Comcast has blathered on about how it can deliver 100 Mb/s, but we have yet to see it. Verizon has decent speed, if you can get it, because there are many who have been promised FiOS, and then told that it is not yet available. Then we hear about 200 Mb/s in Scandinavia, and just this week, in the U.K., Virgin states that they will roll out 150 Mb/s before the big boy on their block, British Telecom, has a chance to.

from BBC Online

Virgin Media will offer 100 to 150Mbps broadband speeds up to two years before BT completes its rival fibre network.

“We have an opportunity with our network to provide significantly higher speeds,” Virgin Media’s chief executive Neil Berkett told BBC News.

BT has said its fibre network will hit the first crop of UK cities by early 2010 and will be complete by 2012.

Virgin currently offers a top speed of 50Mbps while BT is pledging 40 to 60Mb.

Mr Berkett said its fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) network was capable of supporting up to 200Mbps but roll out of higher speeds was a “function of timing”.

He said: “When we look at the market I don’t see us getting the returns right now for 100 or 150Mbps.

See what applications work at different speeds

“As we work with application providers, and content providers… there will be a natural point where we upgrade from 10, 20 and 50Mbps to something more.

“If BT were to meet the time frame they have suggested - of finishing by 2012 - I would see us as having much, much faster upstream speed, running at a minimum of 100Mbps downstream and possibly more. You can see a real opportunity there.”

Faster speeds

Mr Berkett said he would be surprised if Virgin Media did not start the roll out of faster speeds next year.

BT has said it will deploy FTTC technology at 29 exchanges across the UK in the coming 9 to 12 months.

The network will offer speeds of up to 40Mbps - and potentially 60Mbps - to 500,000 homes and businesses.

Areas of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Greater Manchester will be able to access the fibre network, which will be opened up on a wholesale basis to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who can then offer various broadband packages to customers.

Virgin Media says its network reaches half of all homes in the UK. The technology has a theoretical limit of 200Mbps downsteam speeds.

Mr Berkett said the firm had not ruled out the possibility of opening its own network to other ISPs.

He said: “We had this conversation with a bunch of investors recently. Our position is ‘Let’s prove the market’.

“Wholesaling is not off our agenda but right now it is not a priority for us.”

He added: “Who knows, by the time BT have rolled out their next generation network we may be in position to explore wholesale.”

Speed for different applications, and then how much multiple applications from a single user’s residence can take

If the Brits can do this, why can’t we? We invented the internet did we not? Don’t  we hear about the innovation for the hardware that drives these speeds being native to these shores?

Think about the needs of Joe Average these days. Joe likes to watch sports, so having that line open to see commentary on ESPN is something he looks forward to. Mrs. Average wants to look up those watch-us-as-we-do-it episodes from Martha Stewart’s site, while Junior Average is online in his room, playing that FPS, and getting really miffed that his parents habits are really killing his ping times. Meanwhile, Little Miss Average is on the computer in her room, listening to the latest drivel that passes for music, streamed while she looks at her friends’  MySpace pages.

All of this takes up a lot of bandwidth. It will only get worse, as people realize how dismal the reception will be on television after June 12, when DTV becomes the Turkey of 2009.

It’s time to get writing letters, to Congress, to the cable companies, and the telcos, and, if there are any, anymore, the mom-and-pop ISPs. This is the infrastructure that needs a major upgrade immediately. Without caps, and without excuses. Business, communications, and leisure activity all depend on those pipes getting really big, and when they start choking off what we want, there will be many wondering why.

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