While the current speed of WiFi may satisfy the needs of some users today, some communities want to accelerate economic development, help their existing businesses to remain competitive, and create new job and work opportunities for residents.
Community investments in telecom infrastructure must be based on future needs, not current needs, or the investments will be quickly obsolete. Just in the past ten years, the typical "useful" bandwidth for residential and small business use has increased by an order of magnitude, from around 50 kilobits (dial up) to 500 kilobits (DSL, cable modem).
What is driving bandwidth is not just email and Web surfing, but a converged telecom environment where that 100 megabit fiber connection will provide not just 5-10 megabits of Internet access for the home or small business, but also telephone services and video services. It is video that is driving the bandwidth requirements, and many businesses are already using HD business videoconferencing systems--these systems require 40-50 megabits of bandwidth for a simple two location business conference.
The average American home has 3.5 televisions, and so you have to design a telecom infrastructure that supports three channels of HD television to a single home, or about 60 megabits of bandwidth (18-20 megabits per channel for MPEG2 HD video).
Community investments in telecom need to look to the future to protect the investment.
The need for speed
While the current speed of WiFi may satisfy the needs of some users today, some communities want to accelerate economic development, help their existing businesses to remain competitive, and create new job and work opportunities for residents.
Community investments in telecom infrastructure must be based on future needs, not current needs, or the investments will be quickly obsolete. Just in the past ten years, the typical "useful" bandwidth for residential and small business use has increased by an order of magnitude, from around 50 kilobits (dial up) to 500 kilobits (DSL, cable modem).
What is driving bandwidth is not just email and Web surfing, but a converged telecom environment where that 100 megabit fiber connection will provide not just 5-10 megabits of Internet access for the home or small business, but also telephone services and video services. It is video that is driving the bandwidth requirements, and many businesses are already using HD business videoconferencing systems--these systems require 40-50 megabits of bandwidth for a simple two location business conference.
The average American home has 3.5 televisions, and so you have to design a telecom infrastructure that supports three channels of HD television to a single home, or about 60 megabits of bandwidth (18-20 megabits per channel for MPEG2 HD video).
Community investments in telecom need to look to the future to protect the investment.