Where's my gigabit Internet, anyway?

  • 20 April 2014
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Userlevel 7
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For Americans used to roughly 10Mbps broadband connections, the idea of gigabit Internet can feel a little like science fiction. Streaming 4K video without hiccups? Enormous file downloads happening in seconds? Oh, sure.
And while you might think businesses would be eyeing very-high-speed residential Internet connections as a boon to a workforce that increasingly prefers to work at home, the truth is that it’s not that big a deal, at this point.
 
Matt Davis, an analyst at IDC, said that a gigabit connection is overkill for the tasks most home-based workers in the U.S. perform.
“Unless you’re doing medical imaging, or you have to run extraordinarily high-quality telepresence like video conferencing sessions or something like that, you’re not going to need anywhere near a gig,” he said.
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Userlevel 7
To be quite honest, when the idea was first being discussed, before Google actually had anyone hooked up, I had the knee jerk drool reaction.  Who wouldn't?
 
But really, I quite agree that it is massive overkill.  Why would I have the need to fill my hard drive within just a few minutes?  Sure, my slow rural internet that is far far shy of the 10 Mbps is incredibly lacking.  But rarely do we have streamed video stutter or stall.  Loading a web page in .01 seconds might be nice, but do we really NEED it?
 
I can happily pass.
Userlevel 7
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I agree David. There is a scheme to possibly bring fibre to this village but to be honest I am happy enough with what we have got, it is fast enough for what I need. My wife streams some videos onto her iPad but I don't really see a big drop off in here because of it. So in answer to your question if we need it or not, I am doubtful that we do actually.

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