As internet service providers begin to offer customers faster speeds, a new area of competition is underway. Initially, the race was to provide the fastest download and upload speeds. Recently, the speed race has outstriped the capabilities of users’ PCs. This created a new cost factor for the internet service providers. The bandwidth cap is fast becoming the new battlefields over which these companies will be forced to compete.
There are price limitations on monthly bandwidth. While consumers may sometimes feel that there is a global conspiracy stopping them from getting the bandwidth they want at a comfortable price, there are hardware costs involved in getting data to your computer at the speeds we’ve become accustomed to. However, prices are typically determined by the cost a customer is willing to spend on a product. As it stands, the prices advertised by most internet service providers seem to be acceptable. However, one change in user behavior looms on the horizon that inevitability threatens to destroy the present comfortable footing on which service providers build their business plans. The normal consumer will eventually want to see HD TV content on their PCs. This will spell the end of the cable television station.
While cable companies have a vested interest in preventing this by limiting monthly bandwidth, they will be unable to maintain control of the market. Wireless internet is being made available nearly everywhere at blinding speeds. This will make it nearly impossible for this media transition to be prevented by any company.
This will be great for the consumer. As companies start to boast that you get more bandwidth for your money, these caps will go up very quickly due to market pressure. Companies that provide hardware to internet service providers will need to lower their prices in turn. This is the nature of the pricing mechanism of the market.
With all the myriad ways to transfer data, there will be a huge focus on quality. For the user who plans to view high quality videos, this will represent a dramatic improvement to the quality of life. High quality content inevitably creates higher bandwidth demands.
Higher bandwidth limits will also affecthave an impact on the quality of content produced. Most current media files are compressed to meet bandwidth limitations. When it becomes possible to transfer more data at faster speeds, these limitations will disappear. This might lead to new advancements in music recording software. Why not use large music files if they can be transferred very quickly? The same logic would apply for video files. If providers can upload bigger files, then movie files will be available in increased quality. Over time this will allow for serious growth in the quality of audio and video files.
Online games will participate in this expansion as well. As data transfer rates go through the roof, you can count on games to take advantage of all the extra bandwidth. Online games will never need to use the same amount of bandwidth as streaming video or music, but it’s a certainty that the demands of gamers will increase at the same pace.
There is a bright future for online content. While many complain about the current bandwidth caps, we are not far away from an all out race between providers to deliver the increased bandwidth at lower costs. In the long run, this will mean great things for the consumers of high quality online content.
Geek Choice understands that consumers enjoy high quality media. As a nationwide computer repair company, we work hard to help people enjoy the experience with their machines. If you are having problems with your media center PC, feel free to call our office at 1-800-GEEK HELP (433-5435).
Popularity: 11%
Related posts: