Trapped In The Telephone Company's Basement
Long, long ago, in a land far, far away, Earthlings discovered something new to do with the already magical personal computer. Using a device called a modem, together with an ordinary phone line, they could reach out and see information from another location right on their computer screen. My first modem was a Hayes 1200 baud. And even though there were only a couple of sites that were nothing more than information bureaus, it was way cool long before anyone ever used that term. I knew then that the world would never be the same.Webster: Baud, n, a unit of speed in data transmission equal to one bit per second. Named for the French engineer, J. M. E. Baudot, who constructed the first successful teleprinter. In case you didn't know, a bit is one digital character, and a byte is typically a string of 8 bits.
Boggling The Mind And The Line
Fast-forward to the next century. Modem speed has increased. Baud, now passe, has become bps (bits per second) and kbps (kilobits per second). After a number of generations, 8.8kbps to 14.4kbps to 28.8kbps, etc., the optimum modem speed now is 56,600 bps (56.6kbps). The difference between 56.6kbps and 1200 baud is like the difference between lightning and lightning bug.
The sheer mass and size of information (content) and capability (technology) available over the Internet today truly boggles the mind. The bad news is, it also boggles our connectivity systems. With all of the new generations of processing and connecting, and the new and exciting cyber-places where you can have a virtual visit, there is still one element of this process that hasn't changed since long, long ago: the analog copper wire phone connection. Fifteen years ago I plugged my very first 1200 baud modem into the same phone jack where I now plug in my 56.6kbps modem.
Until recently the 56.6kbps/copper wire combination, aka "plain old telephone service", POTS for short, was fine. When you download multi-megabyte files of software and other neat stuff over POTS, you simply wait for the downloads to finish. Fifteen minutes, maybe an hour. So what if it takes a little longer. Yeah, it's inconvenient, but you can live with it.
Cool Streams
One of the cool capabilities that is emerging is audio and video streaming. Streaming is different from downloading in that you can actually listen or watch as the file comes in, instead of waiting for it to be downloaded before using it (like the Advocate Archives on my website). But in the world of streaming, especially video, POTS is definitely NOT cool.
Jonathan Zuck is the president of the Association for Competitive Technology, and a member of our Brain Trust. He says when it comes to audio (sometimes) and video (always), POTS is to streaming as potholes are to an Indy race car: slower laps and lots of braking.
"Braking" in audio and video streaming introduces you to a new application of an old word, "buffering". Put simply, buffering is when the file you are streaming can't squeeze through your connection fast enough to maintain the integrity of the content. Consequently, the transfer slows down to the speed of your connection and the file sort of breaks up and trickles through. The result is enough of an interruption to diminish the quality of the streaming performance.
Help! I'm Trapped In The Basement
Here's the picture: the genius developers of content and technology have been working their little fingers to the bone to provide tons of really cool stuff that is the IT equivalent of an intergalactic space ship. But Houston, we have a problem: this space ship has been built in the basement of the phone company's house. And now we realize that in order to launch this puppy, we have to take it apart, carry it outside, and put it back together. Frustration for the developer, and anti-climax for the consumer.
Baud Becomes Broad
But take heart, brave surfer, there is help on the way to rescue you from this basement. Broad bandwidth, aka, "big pipe", is the Star Fighter of the Internet consumer, and it is closing at light speed on the evil POTS Empire.
Adam Thierer, with the Heritage Foundation, and a member of our Brain Trust, has been a guest on my show to discuss broad bandwidth. He wrote a piece called "Broad Bandwidth Telecommunications in the 21th Century". In his paper he reports that Congress, in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, defines broad bandwidth this way: "the high speed switched broad band telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive high quality voice, data, graphic and video telecommunications using any technology." As Adam quips, "It's a broad definition." Every pun intended.
Chocolate Or Vanilla?
Broad bandwidth is the next generation of telecommunications connectivity. The good news for consumers is that it comes in more than one flavor. I'll just list the two most prominent ones here: digital subscriber line (DSL) from the telephone company, using fiber optics, and cable modem from, you guessed it, the cable company, using coaxial wire. (The relative merits and demerits of broad bandwidth options is the topic of another article.)
Actually, broad bandwidth connectivity has been around for a while in the form of ISDN and T1 connections, again just to name two. But these are expensive options, and consequently, not for the masses. ISDN connection can cost over $100 per month, plus an expensive termination device (modem), and corporations pay thousands a month for a T1 connection. DSL and cable modems should cost less than $50 a month, and that number will fall like a rock once there is proliferation and competition. Good deflation, as our friend, Gary Shilling, would say.
With broad bandwidth, instead of trying to squeeze a million bits through your 56,600 bit drinking straw POTS connection, the big pipe of a DSL or cable modem lets the digits virtually free-fall right through to uninterrupted resolution on your monitor and clear sound from your speakers.
If you live in one of the larger markets, you may already have DSL or cable modem connection available. Congratulations. But those of us who live in fly-over America will have to wait. This year, maybe next year, big pipes are coming. And when broad bandwidth becomes the default connectivity, the jolt you will feel will be from several different paradigms shifting. It won't be like an explosion; more like a chain reaction.
Gutenberg, Whitney, Edison, Bell, and Baudot
The printing press, cotton gin, electric light, and telephone all created paradigm shifts that changed the world. I believe broad bandwidth connectivity will affect our marketplace and our culture in a way that will compare to these historical shifts. Adam Thierer says the emergence of broad bandwidth will be radical, if not revolutionary.
Look out, transportation industry. Heads up, information and entertainment sector. Take a look, higher education and technical training organizations. High quality, features-rich, and inexpensive teleconferencing, plus interactive entertainment/information options, along with distance learning alternatives will tilt the playing field of these sectors, and many others, if not turn them upside down.
Write this on a rock... Big Pipe connectivity is going to change the way Earthlings live, learn, are entertained, travel, buy, sell, manage, govern - you get the picture. Make sure you benefit from the emerging and inevitable broad bandwidth paradigm shifts, rather than be clobbered by the last lurch of the vestigial limbs of POTS and other soon-to-be passe technologies and applications. May the force be with you.
The Association for Competitive Technology website is ActOnline.org. The Heritage Foundation's website is Heritage.org.
