Speed Does Matter

Internet service providers are jacking up their bandwidth capabilities to continuously satisfy the growing needs of their users. Just recently, Time Warner has pumped up its capacity to give specific areas in the East Coast 7Mbps/384Kbps for a package worth $39.95 per month. Others are also going on the same path of overwhelming their consumers with bandwidth packages, such as Cablevision and Verizon.

But just how much bandwidth capbility does a typical consumer really need? According to analysts, a video streamed from CNN.com only uses up around 500Kbps to 600Kbps. Other services such music downloads and Internet telephony use up less bandwidth. To sum it up, the average consumer does not really need all that bandwidth being offered by their service providers. It's only a natural reaction of consumers to want to subscribe to providers that offer faster service. But that's okay since people would always find a way to utilize all the available bandwidth in the future. Verizon's Schommer said, "I remember the days when people said they couldn't imagine who would ever need 64Kbps of RAM on their PCs... Those days are long gone. As new applications are developed for the internet, user behavior will change, an people will find ways to use all that bandwidth."