Comment: The bandwidth bandwagon

By Paul Trotter

Posted on 25 Nov 2005 at 11:45

But the growth of the broadcasting telcos can't be achieved with the Net connections most people have in their homes today. According to analyst Broadband Trends, broadcast TV requires 2Mb/sec at the very minimum, although up to 6Mb/sec is preferable, whereas HDTV requires up to 12Mb/sec. The bandwidth requirements increase when broadcasters get smarter by providing added features such as picture-in-picture. Add to that the mainstream demands of the Internet user, and you can see that connections in today's average home just aren't good enough.

With so much at stake, ISPs have become hugely aggressive, and we're the ones to benefit. Wanadoo, for example, is offering an 8Mb/sec connection with a built-in VoIP service for just £14.99. That's half the price many of us were paying for 512Mb/sec three years ago.

It's worth shopping around next time your subscription comes up for renewal, but now more than ever before it pays to check the added features ISPs are providing. High-speed broadband for the sake of it is boring, but the applications that are just around the corner are far from it.