Why Low-Speed Internet Is a Waste

Beyond squeezing more life and dollars out of aging network facilities, it seems to me the that pushing Internet access at speeds of below 1 mbps is a pretty big waste of marketing time, rain forests, TV ads and operator energy.

Sure, it’s wayyyyy faster than dial-up Internet, which I haven’t heard about in ages, but what can you really do with less than a megabit of speed that won’t frustrate/annoy the hell out of you? Or maybe it’s part of a plan to get you to move up to something faster and pricier?

Nobody likes slow, especially young demographics whom are the among the biggest power users on capacity, and, for many applications, the least tolerant of delay(s).

In a content-crazy and media-sharing mighty environment, what can you accomplish in a meaningful way at up to 768 kbps? And that’s downstream, so the oft-overlooked return channel (upstream) is most certainly much slower.

I could most certainly understand if low-speed, non-dial-up Internet was the only show in town. However, based on the all our efforts of my market’s top telco and cableco, it’s definitely not.

The slow-speed promos are in stark contrast to TV ads, direct-mail pieces and newspaper inserts pushing superfast Internet, be it powered or enhanced by DOCSIS 3.0 or through a fiber-to-the-home-based FiOS package.

And with the proliferation of consumer electronic devices and viewing enhancers like Sling-anythings, Web video sites, social networking destinations, gaming systems, portable media devices and more, what can you expect to connect to a non-broadband connection and still enjoy?

So, it seems there’s something of a disconnect between operator market might (and their machines) and the real brains of broadband.

Consider a recent comment by Cablevisions Systems Corp. (CVC) COO Tom Rutledge when asked about the viability of services in tough economic times. He said sophisticated users would likely disconnect TV before broadband.

That seems to indicate that consumers see serious value in high-speed Internet.

So why don’t operators of all types focus on the speed and pushing the value of fat pipes and spare themselves a damaging price war on the low-speed edge of the market that appears to be burning valuable resources that can be better spent elsewhere?

Perhaps on getting broadband to people that don’t yet have access to it?

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