Bandwidth -- the measure of a communications channel -- is one of the three fundamentals of the digital age. The other two obvious ones are processing power -- measured in the ever-increasing megaherz speed ratings of our chips -- and the cheap memory and storage that allows us to manipulate and capture the treasures we find online.
We've been enjoying the benefits of increased computer horsepower for many years, courtesy of Moore's Law. Hard drives and memory always seem to be less expensive than the last time I bought them. (Maybe not always memory, but who can complain about a 30GB hard drive for US$99?)
Bringing it all back home
Cheap bandwidth, on the other hand, is a new phenomenon for most people. It used to be the fastest network most people could access was at a university or big company. But as the home computer has largely eclipsed the power of the business desktop, your home Internet speeds are likely faster than those at work.
Large amounts of cheap bandwidth are to the Digital Age what electricity, railroads, and the automobile were to their times. Today, we stand at the beginning of the broadband era, a technology that will change the way we live in profound and unexpected ways. Some will be positive, some negative, but the changes are inevitable.
Bandwidth allows information to move effortlessly and transparently to where its needed. The greater the bandwidth, the richer the information we can move. Was it really less than a decade ago that modem speeds effectively limited the movement of large data files?
With today's DSL and cable modems, downloading 100MB files isn't a problem. Tomorrow's networks will move gigabytes in almost the blink of an eye.
Brave new world
Every piece of information anyone needs will, theoretically, be instantly available wherever it's needed. The barriers of time and distance won't be destroyed, but they will be dramatically reduced.
New, bandwidth-driven choices will increase with the number of options available to business and consumers. Telepresence may truly prove to be "the next best thing to being there," as the old Bell System long-distance commercials used to say.
Wireless bandwidth won't, in the near term, match what cable and fiber will do. But it's becoming inexpensive and pervasive, and we've just begun to find applications for it. And even at slow speeds it makes home and office networking tremendously easier. (I am typing this on a laptop in the den that's connected wirelessly to the rest of my home network.)
I am thankful to live in interesting times and to have a ringside seat for watching the action and reporting it to you. Together, we can figure out what all this means.
