Upstream Speeds Getting To Be More Important

Surprises

from the finally! dept

Broadband companies have been so focused on downstream speeds, they’ve pretty much ignored the fact that one of the benefits of having an always on connection is that it allows people to do things upstream as well. It’s a symptom of the “broadcast” mentality of broadband companies who think the only reason to go online is to download content – and not to communicate with others or to create and offer your own content. However, what things like peer-to-peer systems have shown is that upstream speeds are increasingly important as well – and we’re starting to see a tiny shift where broadband providers are starting to increase the speeds and talk about their upstream speeds as well (rather than hiding them in the fine print). Of course, many are still worried about any kind of server application coming out of the home and how it will impact bandwidth, but as with downstream broadband, there isn’t going to be much they can do to stop it. As new applications come out that make more use of upstream bandwidth providers who offer higher bandwidth heading upstream will start to get more business.