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Just a couple of decades ago, I started with 64kbps ISDN uplink on copper twisted pair and 2Mbps sat downlink, serving 100 computers in a college campus browsin

Just a couple of decades ago, I started with 64kbps ISDN uplink on copper twisted pair and 2Mbps sat downlink, serving 100 computers in a college campus browsing center. That was clearly web 1.0. And a decade ago, I was doing pairs of redundant 10Gig links to a datacenter. That was web2.0. For the past 5 years, I have a GPON network to my home (incidentally with a Nokia ONT). Today, this is the only way Internet is delivered to homes around me. But I'm on a 300Mbps plan and don't think I utilize anything close to it. There are 1Gbps plans available. Btw, my mobile already clocks 400Mbps+ in speed tests on 5G network. This is the post-covid WFH plus multiple 4K streaming services era. I wonder what new use-case (like video streaming) will emerge that will push utilization beyond 1Gbps. Is it AR/VR? Is it streaming updates to big fat AI models running inside your home? Or is it streaming lots of data from your home to AI models in the cloud and getting responses back?

hotpotamus 3y ago
Doesn't it seem like you've got enough at some point? I've never heard of someone demanding larger water pipes to their house or bringing in more electrical lines for higher capacity. For me, I've not really needed more than 100Mbit symmetrical though 1G certainly seems nice.
- baby_souffle 3y ago
  > For me, I've not really needed more than 100Mbit symmetrical though 1G certainly seems nice. I think this is correct for "most" people most of the time. I'm less certain that'll hold in a decade or so. Every once in a while, I need to pull down a big data set and it's nice to only wait tens of seconds instead instead of having enough time to go make a quick cup of coffee while I wait. I have friends that are content-creator adjacent and they routinely sling around massive amounts of footage for editing and other production reasons. Depending on the video, target audience/platform and a few other variables, waiting for the raw footage or even the final export to upload and become available for distribution can cost real money. E.G.: if the press embargo expires for $theHotNewTech at 11 AM and you're still waiting for footage to upload, your competitors will have a video ready to go and YouTube will show their video and not yours. Being "first" on that platform for certain events has a MASSIVE impact on how well the video "performs".
- ChoGGi 3y ago
  You've never been in an older house with 50 amp service? I also know at least one person that went from 100 amp to 200amp. His panel was maxed out and he wanted a garage. I think just running a new line from city connection was 4k (CAD).
baby_souffle 3y ago
> I wonder what new use-case (like video streaming) will emerge that will push utilization beyond 1Gbps. AR/VR are subject to latency. You'll be able to download the 2-3 digit gig files for the worlds quickly, though! Serving files isn't _quite_ so latency sensitive, though. I can see "backup EVERYTHING to your home NAS AND our cloud!" being a more common scenario though. To be clear, we already have this but it's usually a single appliance limited to less than 10 disks/100TB and there is no "offsite" mirror; when you remotely access a file on your synology/wd...etc appliance, you're pulling it from the NAS on your LAN over your ISP.

hotpotamus 3y ago

Doesn't it seem like you've got enough at some point? I've never heard of someone demanding larger water pipes to their house or bringing in more electrical lines for higher capacity. For me, I've not really needed more than 100Mbit symmetrical though 1G certainly seems nice.

baby_souffle 3y ago
> For me, I've not really needed more than 100Mbit symmetrical though 1G certainly seems nice. I think this is correct for "most" people most of the time. I'm less certain that'll hold in a decade or so. Every once in a while, I need to pull down a big data set and it's nice to only wait tens of seconds instead instead of having enough time to go make a quick cup of coffee while I wait. I have friends that are content-creator adjacent and they routinely sling around massive amounts of footage for editing and other production reasons. Depending on the video, target audience/platform and a few other variables, waiting for the raw footage or even the final export to upload and become available for distribution can cost real money. E.G.: if the press embargo expires for $theHotNewTech at 11 AM and you're still waiting for footage to upload, your competitors will have a video ready to go and YouTube will show their video and not yours. Being "first" on that platform for certain events has a MASSIVE impact on how well the video "performs".
ChoGGi 3y ago
You've never been in an older house with 50 amp service? I also know at least one person that went from 100 amp to 200amp. His panel was maxed out and he wanted a garage. I think just running a new line from city connection was 4k (CAD).

baby_souffle 3y ago

> I wonder what new use-case (like video streaming) will emerge that will push utilization beyond 1Gbps. AR/VR are subject to latency. You'll be able to download the 2-3 digit gig files for the worlds quickly, though! Serving files isn't _quite_ so latency sensitive, though. I can see "backup EVERYTHING to your home NAS AND our cloud!" being a more common scenario though. To be clear, we already have this but it's usually a single appliance limited to less than 10 disks/100TB and there is no "offsite" mirror; when you remotely access a file on your synology/wd...etc appliance, you're pulling it from the NAS on your LAN over your ISP.