5 ms·

Putting broadband internet on the same level as electricity and water seems absurd to me. By far the most common use cases for broadband are streaming video, ga

by magila 12y ago

Putting broadband internet on the same level as electricity and water seems absurd to me. By far the most common use cases for broadband are streaming video, gaming/DLC, and piracy. Is there really a point where it becomes reasonable to consider Netflix, Xbox live, and The Pirate Bay essential services?

qq66 12y ago
No, but I would argue that regular internet is approaching an essential service. Nobody needs FiOS but lots of people need access to email/web browser/etc.
imgabe 12y ago
"Most common use cases" by volume of traffic maybe, but Internet is increasingly necessary to pay bills, correspond with customer service for practically any company, communicate with your child's teacher at school, renew your driver's license, and practically any other mundane task. It's not that there aren't offline alternatives for these, but they require maintaining an expensive infrastructure of buildings and people. It's going to be cheaper for everyone in the long run if we can move everybody to doing things over the Internet.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- magila 12y ago
  None of those require broadband (2 Mb or greater according to the FCC, IIRC) though. We're talking about fiber connections in the hundred to thousand megabit range here. Nobody is talking about cutting poorer neighborhoods off from the internet completely.
  - mschuster91 12y ago
    It's either 56k or crappy DSL (2M) for these 'hoods, which equals a "cut off" these days in which everyone and their mother has a landing page with 2MB+ footprint.
    - smsm42 12y ago
      It would be a good idea for the government at least to set the standard for their essential websites to not have 2MB+ footprint. As for the commercial ones, that would be for them to decide if they want larger audience or not.
  - seanc722 12y ago
    Seems pretty short sighted. There is so much being created that is connected to the internet. You say you don't need high bandwidth for these things and I would say that is because they are made with the fact that there are a lot of customers who don't have the higher bandwidth. Give everyone more bandwidth and just think of what we could create!
  - pdonis 12y ago
    > None of those require broadband (2 Mb or greater according to the FCC, IIRC) though. Really? Have you tried your bank's website over dialup? Or a typical bill pay site? (DSL typically meets the 2Mb or greater threshold, so it qualifies as broadband by your definition.)
    - EvanAnderson 12y ago
      I had 768/128Kbps DSL until last month (when my wife got fed up with poor streaming video quality and called the telco about upgrading). For using my bank, credit card company, and "social networking" sites it was fine. That's not dial up speed, I realize, but it's not 2Mbps, either. Since the upgrade to 7/1Mbps service I have observed that sites I thought were slow on the old service are still slow. My wife says YouTube and Hulu are better. I am pleased that my VPN to home seems better (which I attribute to the increased upload bandwidth).
- smsm42 12y ago
  You don't need Google fiber to send email or browse basic text site. Much better idea would be to force government sites that provide bill payments and other essential services (which 100% of them btw can be still paid by old fashioned phone call as far as I know) to have low bandwidth requirements and low compatibility reqs (i.e. no flash, no Java applets, no excessive graphics, etc.). This would also ensure better accessibility, but also would mean you never need 100M channel to just pay your bill.
biff 12y ago
As broadband becomes more pervasive I think we'll see other uses (for example, I could see VR being incorporated into virtual high schools for things like simulating a chemistry lab.) How long did it take for electricity to be considered a necessity? And I'm legitimately curious how much of a factor radio was in motivating people to make the switch...
mullingitover 12y ago
> By far the most common use cases for broadband are streaming video, gaming/DLC, and piracy. Is there really a point where it becomes reasonable to consider Netflix, Xbox live, and The Pirate Bay essential services? Ah yes, you can use it for trivial things, so let's totally ignore all the crucial information and services that are only available on the internet. That seems reasonable.
- sltkr 12y ago
  So what are the “crucial information and services” exactly that require gigabit internet access (Google Fiber's selling point, after all) today? Although “broadband” has always been a moving target, I think it is reasonable to say that essential services won't require gigabit internet access in the next decade or so.
  - mullingitover 12y ago
    We won't know exactly what we can do with it until it's reached critical mass, just like with the telephone. Medical telepresence comes to mind. > I think it is reasonable to say that essential services won't require gigabit internet access in the next decade or so. And 640k should be enough for anybody.
  - bsder 12y ago
    Bidirectional interactive video. Poor areas would benefit most from telepresence teaching.
    - zo1 12y ago
      Telepresence teaching for the poor? Are you actually serious? Rather just fix the schools, please. Instead of throwing money at a "problem" that you invented a need for. I know as tech people we're inclined to think that more tech can always fix the world's problems. But that's a venus project type of fly-trap, and we must be careful not to fall for it!
- Larrikin 12y ago
  Are they totally trivial things? Most poor people are working poor at jobs they don't particularly like. Should they be miserable at all times of the day just because they are poor?

by magila 12y ago

qq66 12y ago

No, but I would argue that regular internet is approaching an essential service. Nobody needs FiOS but lots of people need access to email/web browser/etc.

imgabe 12y ago

"Most common use cases" by volume of traffic maybe, but Internet is increasingly necessary to pay bills, correspond with customer service for practically any company, communicate with your child's teacher at school, renew your driver's license, and practically any other mundane task. It's not that there aren't offline alternatives for these, but they require maintaining an expensive infrastructure of buildings and people. It's going to be cheaper for everyone in the long run if we can move everybody to doing things over the Internet.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
magila 12y ago
None of those require broadband (2 Mb or greater according to the FCC, IIRC) though. We're talking about fiber connections in the hundred to thousand megabit range here. Nobody is talking about cutting poorer neighborhoods off from the internet completely.
- mschuster91 12y ago
  It's either 56k or crappy DSL (2M) for these 'hoods, which equals a "cut off" these days in which everyone and their mother has a landing page with 2MB+ footprint.
  - smsm42 12y ago
    It would be a good idea for the government at least to set the standard for their essential websites to not have 2MB+ footprint. As for the commercial ones, that would be for them to decide if they want larger audience or not.
- seanc722 12y ago
  Seems pretty short sighted. There is so much being created that is connected to the internet. You say you don't need high bandwidth for these things and I would say that is because they are made with the fact that there are a lot of customers who don't have the higher bandwidth. Give everyone more bandwidth and just think of what we could create!
- pdonis 12y ago
  > None of those require broadband (2 Mb or greater according to the FCC, IIRC) though. Really? Have you tried your bank's website over dialup? Or a typical bill pay site? (DSL typically meets the 2Mb or greater threshold, so it qualifies as broadband by your definition.)
  - EvanAnderson 12y ago
    I had 768/128Kbps DSL until last month (when my wife got fed up with poor streaming video quality and called the telco about upgrading). For using my bank, credit card company, and "social networking" sites it was fine. That's not dial up speed, I realize, but it's not 2Mbps, either. Since the upgrade to 7/1Mbps service I have observed that sites I thought were slow on the old service are still slow. My wife says YouTube and Hulu are better. I am pleased that my VPN to home seems better (which I attribute to the increased upload bandwidth).
smsm42 12y ago
You don't need Google fiber to send email or browse basic text site. Much better idea would be to force government sites that provide bill payments and other essential services (which 100% of them btw can be still paid by old fashioned phone call as far as I know) to have low bandwidth requirements and low compatibility reqs (i.e. no flash, no Java applets, no excessive graphics, etc.). This would also ensure better accessibility, but also would mean you never need 100M channel to just pay your bill.

biff 12y ago

As broadband becomes more pervasive I think we'll see other uses (for example, I could see VR being incorporated into virtual high schools for things like simulating a chemistry lab.) How long did it take for electricity to be considered a necessity? And I'm legitimately curious how much of a factor radio was in motivating people to make the switch...

mullingitover 12y ago

> By far the most common use cases for broadband are streaming video, gaming/DLC, and piracy. Is there really a point where it becomes reasonable to consider Netflix, Xbox live, and The Pirate Bay essential services? Ah yes, you can use it for trivial things, so let's totally ignore all the crucial information and services that are only available on the internet. That seems reasonable.

sltkr 12y ago
So what are the “crucial information and services” exactly that require gigabit internet access (Google Fiber's selling point, after all) today? Although “broadband” has always been a moving target, I think it is reasonable to say that essential services won't require gigabit internet access in the next decade or so.
- mullingitover 12y ago
  We won't know exactly what we can do with it until it's reached critical mass, just like with the telephone. Medical telepresence comes to mind. > I think it is reasonable to say that essential services won't require gigabit internet access in the next decade or so. And 640k should be enough for anybody.
- bsder 12y ago
  Bidirectional interactive video. Poor areas would benefit most from telepresence teaching.
  - zo1 12y ago
    Telepresence teaching for the poor? Are you actually serious? Rather just fix the schools, please. Instead of throwing money at a "problem" that you invented a need for. I know as tech people we're inclined to think that more tech can always fix the world's problems. But that's a venus project type of fly-trap, and we must be careful not to fall for it!
Larrikin 12y ago
Are they totally trivial things? Most poor people are working poor at jobs they don't particularly like. Should they be miserable at all times of the day just because they are poor?