How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World...

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Telecom industry is has just gone through a change with number portability which has brought a new momentum in the industry. Now what next change will revolutionize telecom? Is it infinite bandwidth? Let us go through it. This an interesting article regarding Infinite bandwidth...

This is a time of turmoil in communications and media, and for good reason: digital technology undermines the very premise on which these industries were built.

In the analog past, content and services were tied to the mechanisms that delivered them. It was possible to speak of a medium like television or print or telephony without distinguishing between the mode of delivery and what was being delivered. This linkage put the owners of the delivery mechanisms in a privileged position to provide content and services. Newspaper publishers could write articles, television broadcasters could produce shows, and the owners of phone lines could offer telephone services. Because this position offered such overwhelming advantage, government carefully regulated these industries.

With digital technology, we can now convert all of these different kinds of information into simple bits. And digital conduits, such as optical fiber, can deliver these bits indiscriminately, oblivious to whether they represent television shows, newspaper articles, or telephone calls. Everything can flow through the same pipe.

At the epicenter of this earthquake is the Internet. Designed originally as a military communications system, its formative goal was to prevent bottlenecks and ensure wide access. In other words, its very structure is antithetical to any industry based on preferred access. The Internet works as an all-purpose delivery service, sending packets of bits toward their destination by any means available. It can use wires, fiber, satellites, microwave links, even technologies yet to be invented, in the stubborn pursuit of this goal. Today the Internet’s capacity is still fairly limited, so it’s better suited to carrying text and images than bit-intensive phone calls and video. But eventually it will carry even the highest-bandwidth channels of information. It will become the universal, low-cost system for delivering information to every business, home, and wireless device.

As the Internet expands, companies organized according to the old rules face a major challenge. Their traditional advantages are eroding as consumers take advantage of the new ways they can receive content and services. Already, the dominant mode for classified advertising is switching from newspapers to the Web. Publishers like Encyclopædia Britannica are shifting their focus from traditional books to interactive Web sites that offer up-to-the-minute updates, search capabilities, and electronic commerce. Giants like Time Warner and Bell Atlantic face a triple challenge, since they must simultaneously deal with new technologies, new competitors, and a collection of leftover regulatory constraints.

In the short term, however, these companies have a great deal of financial, market, and political power with which to defend their positions. Consumers are still learning about the new technologies, and some of the leftover regulations will help, rather than hinder, entrenched interests. Those who currently have the advantage of special access to customers can be expected to fight to hold on to that advantage for as long as possible. The next decade will be a battle, and since Congress is easier to fool than the marketplace, much of that battle will be fought over regulations.

How was it? Do you all agree to this? Or is there anything else hidden waiting to come up? What are your views?