[LINK] The PLAN, and broadband speeds?

[Brendan Scott]

Karl Auer wrote:
> Why do so many people not get it?
> 
> On Fri, 2007-06-22 at 10:45 +1000, David Lochrin wrote:
>> The vast majority of domestic users would only need large
>> bandwidths for TV, and there are many more domestic users than
>> business users. Even most businesses (e.g. the local deli) would
>> not need high bandwidths either.  Hence the greatest use of the
>> network as a whole would be for TV.
> 
> This is complete piffle. We don't KNOW what would be done with high 
> bandwidth. We don't know what life-changing and business-changing
> uses might arise for reliable, affordable, high-bandwidth
> connectivity. Even in the local deli. TV could end up being the rump
> of some totally new technology.
> 
> Don't limit our future; if there is one rule of networking it is that
>  there is never enough bandwidth.

Hang on.  The issue isn't so much whether people will use it if its there, but who should be paying to get it there.  Who should be paying depends on who the likely beneficiaries are, especially the immediate beneficiaries.  

I am not too keen on my tax dollars subsidising someone to watch TV on their computer - or play the latest XBox game - or to download some movie - or, indeed, to run a HD video conference.  The people that want to do these things should be picking up the tab.  

Of the examples I have most sympathy with subsidising the use for a video conference because it is a productive rather than a consumptive use of the technology.  


Brendan