[LINK] A non-sensationalist look at Australian internet speeds

[Paul Brooks]

On 29/03/2016 8:19 AM, David Boxall wrote:
> On 28/03/2016 11:36 PM, Paul Brooks wrote:
>> ...
>> The ABS measures data volume transferred not link capacity or bandwidth - these two
>> aspects are only loosely related with each other.
>> Data volume can increase by many times without link bandwidth changing at all.
>> ...
>
> I'd be interested to see anyone explain to an everyday audience (say, The Age or
> Sydney Morning Herald) how the ABS data can continue to rise exponentially without
> impacting bandwidth.
>

I hate to say it, but the easiest example is using videos/movies.

Lets say people in a house watch more and more streamed video over time. They start
out watching one movie per week. After a few weeks they start watching two movies per
week. The next month they watch three movies each week.
As long as they aren't trying to watch them at the same time, they are transferring
once, twice and then three times the data volume each month, without using or
requiring any more bandwidth. Its only when the household starts trying to do multiple
things *all at the same time* that they might start seeing congestion and looking to
upgrade to more bandwidth.

In this way, averaged over the whole population, data volume consumed can grow
considerably each month even though actual bandwidth doesn't need to grow nearly as much.

P.