The availability of Internet bandwidth

Back? The future of books

Descrition:

The internet, since its invention, has captured the attention of 25% of the global population. The internet bandwidth in the last few years has tripled, because every day more and more people become users. The supply has tried to keep up with the demand but in a world driven by technology, when everything is uploaded, people focus mainly on the online resources and aim for the highest quality of videos, online conferences and calls, can the internet keep up with the increasing expectations? The internet has always offered enough bandwidth to satisfy the demand and specialists say that this won’t stop, but all resources are limited.

The internet has created new opportunities and brought with it the new commerce. The e-book commerce is directly connected to the internet development, and if the internet speed would slow down, the whole e-book industry will slow down with it.

The implications of an internet bandwidth shortage are severe. Providers would increase their prices, people would have limited access to internet, and the e-book commerce would have a lot to suffer. The price of e-book would increase to cover the costs with the internet to such a level that they could cost more than a printed book. Add to that the decrease in customer numbers.

On the other hand, if providers anticipate the moment of shortage of the internet, they can make sure that the bandwidth available is enough to satisfy all requests. This forecast would bring a new wave of customers interested in buying or accessing online books.

Enablers:

1. Increase in the number of internet users

The internet users are also potential e-book readers as most of the e-books are available through web-sites. Some exceptions, as Amazon, have their own system of providing e-books to readers but this system might not seen as worthing the investment by all companies. An increase in the number of internet users offers the e-books businesses new potential customers who can become permanent. While this increase can affect the availability of internet bandwidth slowing down the connection, if the internet providers anticipate the increase and invest in new architecture, the e-book industry will win.

2. New technology that allows higher transfer of data

In their attempt to meet demand, internet providers might find new technologies that would allow higher transfer of data. This would solve the problem of internet users explosion and allow for quality access to e-book providers.

Inhibitors:

1. Change in the number of internet users

An increase in the number of internet users rises the problem of bandwidth availability which is connected to the reader's possibility to access data and buy books. On the other hand, a decrease in the number of internet users will decrease also the potential e-book readers.

2. Increase in internet cable snapping

An increase in internet cable that connects continents makes the risk of cable snapping higher. This can happen because of submarines,geological changes (the distance between some platforms increases), earthquakes.

3. Virtual workers

The number of virtual workers is constantly increasing as companies nowadays put more and more accent on creating multi-cultural teams. Multi-cultural teams, most of the times, involve people that work online, from all over the world. The popularity of virtual workers is increasing because it has advantages to work from home instead of the office, one doesn’t have to move for a new job etc. With the number of virtual workers, the expectations of quality and reliability are increasing too.

4. High-bandwidth applications

These applications, such as high definition videos, require a significant amount of bandwidth.

Experts:

Cisco

Timing:

between 1997 - 2007 internet usage grew by 70%-150% each year

between 2004 - 2006 Broadband access increased from 27% to 44%, in USA

2008 - Internet traffic increased by 50-60% in the last year

Predictions

between 2006-2010 access will grow with 80% in USA and 90% worldwide

from 2007 until 2012 internet traffic will increase by 40-50% annually

2010 - without massive investments, AT&T will hit full capacity of its Internet current architecture

2012 - The Internet video traffic will be 400 times the traffic carried by the U.S. Internet backbone in 2000

2012 - The IP traffic will be 4 times more than in 2008

Web Resources:

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet#Growth

CNET News http://news.cnet.com/2100-1034_3-6237715.html

Fiercetelecom http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/broadband-subs-hit-400-million-net-bending-under-weight/2008-11-19

New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/03/13/business/20080313_NET_GRAPHIC.html?scp=1&sq=busier%20and%20busier&st=cse

Cisco http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360_ns827_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html