BBC iPlayer has revealed today that during their peak times, they pump out 12Gb of data every second. To put it in perspective, that’s exactly 12,288Mb’s which is around 12 full length films every second!
But it’s hard to believe that such figures would exist in this day and age without the growing popularity of fast broadband speeds. It seems that the online content providers such as iPlayer and the internet service providers (ISP’s) are working together on bringing online content to watch at speeds where you can actually enjoy it.
With HD content now becoming widely available online it’s up to the ISP’s to step up to the mark and offer speeds where we can actually view it the way it’s supposed to be viewed. Without fast speed internet the picture quality suffers as well as the overall stream quality to your PC.
Those of you in an isolated or rural part of the UK might be paying for speeds you can’t use.
If these recent trends continue it may spell the end of 2Mb broadband as we know it.
2Mb broadband has long been considered the norm in the UK and according to Stephen Carter’s digital Britain report it will be available to 99.9% of us by 2012 no matter how ‘rural’ our house location is.
But, with online content becoming more popular, the future for fast speed broadband is looking more lucrative than ever to the ISP’s so it begs the question – Are there going to be many big name providers offering a basic 2Mb service by the time the Olympics come to town? And if not, does that mean people in rural areas will be paying for high speed internet even if their phone lines cannot support it?
An argument against this is that there will always be niche ‘internet only’ providers out there that will offer a low grade broadband option but, with the savings to be had by bundling all of your services we highly doubt it will be worth your while.