Why we need to win the battle for an ultrafast Internet

Last week I discussed how Google is making incumbent ISPs look like fools. By dropping cheap gigabit Internet connections into homes, Google is upping the ante significantly, even if it’s only in one market for now. Let’s hope the ripples cruising outward from Google Fiber in Kansas City will be be very significant for the broadband industry and, more important, for society in general. Ubiquitous broadband Internet at those speeds would have a revolutionary effect on modern life.

I hear many people claim they “barely use” their existing broadband connection. They may have only 3Mbps or 5Mbps, perhaps up to 15Mbps, but they seem to think they barely touch those speeds; therefore, the 700Mbps-plus offered by Google Fiber is a waste. In fact, there were comments to that effect on last week’s post.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Google Fiber puts the ISPs to shame | You’ll never get Google Fiber — but you don’t need it anyway | Get the latest practical info and news with Paul Venezia’s The Deep End blog and InfoWorld’s Data Center newsletter. ]

To me, that’s a failure of imagination. The idea that some capacity is so vast that it could never be consumed is nonsense. This is the kind of thinking that led to the famous “nobody needs more than 640K” quote, however dubious the attribution may be. It’s the kind of thinking that led Xerox PARC to blithely part with innovations that later took the world by storm in the hands of others. It’s the mindset that led to the concept that there was nothing left to invent, way back in 1899. Now, there are questions as to whether that quote was real or not, but Henry Ellsworth’s statement echoing that same sentiment in 1843 is a matter of public record.

Modern history offers countless examples of new technologies that were considered to be “enough” at the time, but look downright primitive today. There was a time when an entire neighborhood needed only a single phone line and a house needed only one telephone, a few electrical outlets, or a single radio or television. Of course, not so long ago, people who wanted to use a computer would go where the computers were located, rather than have the computer come to them.

The false limitations that we tend to impose on technological advances only serve as higher-definition contrast to those advances when they appear. Where we shook our heads in wonder when the first terabyte hard drives were shipped, we now do the same when we see four terabyte hard drives. The same goes with smartphones, tablets, and most of the other technologies we rely on. As rapidly as we move forward, we still maintain a sense of awe at our ability to do so.

But broadband has been essentially stagnant for years. You could get roughly the same service several years ago that you can get now, except in many places the service is worse and costs the same or more than it once did. Broadband and wireless networks seem to be treading water at best and going backward at worst. Sure, you might see speeds of 50Mbps offered by your (only) cable ISP, but in far too many U.S. markets, that’s an unobtainable number, especially in higher-density areas. Think about that for a second, and juxtapose it with what you were thinking when I mentioned telephone party lines above. How quaint.

The reason we need broadband in speeds much, much higher than 50Mbps, 100Mbps, or even 500Mbps is because it will fuel a revolution. Remember what happened when we emerged from the murky depths of dial-up? When residences and businesses could access relatively cheap 1Mbps or 2Mbps DSL circuits, the Web exploded, and the massive decrease in latency has fostered faster and more streamlined production. Even the relatively sluggish “broadband” most of us have now has produced all kinds of unplanned, unexpected results.

Audio and video streaming were in their infancy then, but have since become commonplace. Overall, conducting business over the Internet has never been easier. For example, recording studios can ship huge lossless audio tracks to other studios over their Internet connections in hours, rather than burning CDs or using USB flash drives and tossing them in a FedEx envelope. It’s just a tiny example of how we’ve embraced the broadband we have now, though it’s clearly subpar compared to where it should and could be today.

Now imagine what would be possible if we had cheap, ubiquitous, truly high-speed wired network connections, much like what Google Fiber offers. Add high-speed wireless connectivity without oppressive bandwidth caps and make those connections available worldwide. What would we then take for granted that seems to be a pipe dream or not even a thought bubble yet today? How many new industries will be created out of thin air simply because more bandwidth is available to the average person? To get an inkling of the answer to that question, just consider how many technology industries exist now that had absolutely no chance of evolving in the days of dial-up.

This is a major reason why Google is bringing fiber to the home and business. The company’s bread and butter revolves around ubiquitous broadband Internet access, the faster the better. Google’s products and revenue-generation engines work better the faster people can use its services. The incumbent ISPs are an active impediment to Google in many ways. How better to move that mountain than to beat the ISPs at their own game?

It’s said that those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it. That’s true. But it’s also true that those who do understand history are doomed to watch it happen again and again. I hope that the history we’re repeating is the one that moved us from dial-up to DSL and not the one that allowed Ma Bell to throttle communications innovation for decades.

This story, “Why we need to win the battle for an ultrafast Internet,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Paul Venezia’s The Deep End blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.