Comcast is launching an “extreme high-speed” internet package in Minneapolis. Speeds will be 50Mbps down and capped at 5Mbps up. It will cost $150. 8Mbps/1Mbps customers will see their new upload capacity bumped up to 2Mbps.
Comcast is beginning to roll out its DOCSIS 3.0 standard which will allow for, among other things, faster internet connections.
Comcast estimates that 20% of its customers will have the blazing fast connection by the end of the year. All Comcast customers should have the option to get this package by mid-2010.
Comcast has recently said that they want to offer 100Mbps connections in the future. The DOCSIS 3.0 standard is capable of 160Mbps.
America is one of the most well connected countries in the world. However, like our railroad system, our IT infrastructure is now archaic. Fast internet connections like the one Comcast is rolling out are common in other countries.
The new plan will certainly make internet TV a more practical reality. I think the availability of fat pipes will cause internet-based TV to become more popular. I think it will also cause Comcast to filter traffic and eventually lead to more video advertising on the internet.
I don’t have a landline any more as I’ve got VOIP and cellphones. I didn't want VOIP 4 or 5 years ago because I didn’t want to give up the bandwidth for the service. With more bandwidth, I can allow more services and devices in my home to connect to the net without seeing a derogation of service.
Maybe I could have a dedicated VoD device; perhaps some kind of uber Slingbox serving HD content to who knows where.
I think the availability of more bandwidth will also cause creative game development houses to think outside the box. They’ll be able to build more interactive environments. We can see games with 64, 128, and thousands of gamers playing at the same time. We can see more digital downloads and we'll see the optical disc drive become less relevant. I mean, who's got a 3.5" floppy drive on their computer any more?
Remember, that just because you’ve got a lot of bandwidth doesn’t mean that you’ve got a good connection for gaming. Ping times and latency are very important to gamers, especially first-person shooters. What good is it to have more bandwidth if it takes a second for your data to travel from your home to an XBOX server? That's several frames on your screen. By then, you'll be dead.
Imagine playing Halo 3 in enormous maps with hundreds of people.
Imagine playing CoD4 with a hundred gamers separated into squads; each squad taking orders from a leader and a commander. (Wait, I think that was called Battlefield 2 for the PC).
With more bandwidth to utilize, networking engineers can include more game data and may be able to account for inefficient netcode. Halo PC!
