The lines are constantly being blurred between television, radio, publishing, movie rental and the Internet. Because of this, there is greater and greater demand for high-speed Internet access. Especially considering that portals such as Apple’s iTunes, Hulu, and even YouTube are now offering high-definition video, Web users need a lot of bandwidth to use the net these days.
With this in mind, Cablevision Systems is planning to unveil a new Internet access plan that allows ultra fast connection speeds. So fast in fact, that the New York-based company says it will allow the downloading of full-length Hi Def films in under 10 minutes.
The new connection plan will be available first within the metropolitan New York area, and will cost approximately $100 monthly. For that price, however, users can expect much faster download and upload speeds than are currently in being offered by other cable Internet providers. Technically, the new system offers download speeds as high as 101 Mb per second. Upload speeds are more moderate, but still top out at a respectable 15 Mb per second.
The difference to the end-user experience with these speeds is certainly noticeable. For example, approximately 150 songs in MP3 format can be downloaded in 60 seconds — not too shabby! Cablevision also claims that upwards of 750 digital images can be downloaded in the same amount of time.
The company will begin rolling out the new super-speed Internet service in May, though customer demand for the higher-speed access has yet to be determined. Most net experts believe that demand for streaming video and other bandwidth intensive Internet activities will increase significantly over the next few years. This could make Cablevision’s ultra high speed network of solid investment for the company in the long-term.
Interestingly, while download speeds of 100 Mb per second seen incredibly fast in North America, they have been commonplace in some countries for several years now. Tokyo, for example, has had average download speeds approaching 100 Mb per second since 2005. Singapore and other Asian cities aren’t far behind, and European capitals such as Oslo and Stockholm have also boasted average download speeds over 50 Mb per second for some time now.
The challenge for the US is to roll out new super-fast networks throughout the entire country. But because of the geographic size of the US, it could take quite a few years until Midwestern cities can boast the same Internet access speeds as those found on the coasts.
