Most People Don't Want Gigabit Broadband, AEI Fellow Says
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s calls for gigabit broadband (see 1609130061) ignore a central reality -- people don’t need internet speeds that fast, said Bronwyn Howell of the American Enterprise Institute. Howell, a faculty member at the School of Management, Victoria…
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University of Wellington, New Zealand, said that point is supported by experience there. The New Zealand government ran a contest and picked the city of Dunedin to get gigabit broadband, Howell said in a blog post. But that development has generated little local interest or excitement. “The reason is, as articulated by the one local journalist (an experienced technology reporter) sufficiently concerned by the move to report on it, is that no one in the residential market actually needs a gigabyte connection -- not even those with four kids all wanting to stream separate Netflix videos constantly while mom keeps the VPN to her office open, dad is HD videoconferencing on Google Hangouts, and ‘the cat has just stepped on an iPhone, triggering an iOS download,’” Howell wrote. “Most businesses don’t need one either -- not even the journalist’s information-intensive newspaper: ‘With around 30 staff in our Auckland office, and some stonking [extremely] huge files to transfer to our printer, we get along just fine with a 100 Mbps fiber.’” Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry tweeted a response to Howell: "Companies critical to economic development do! Heard from start-up in [Cincinnati] on importance to it of Cincinnati Bell offering." Others lauded Pai's plan (see 1609140036).