[c-nsp] Internet speed

[Mark Tinka]

On 15/Aug/18 10:00, Giles Coochey wrote:

>
> When we get to the point of 1Gbps links I start to think of anything
> higher than that is an increase in capacity and not speed, there are
> not currently any consumer data transfer applications that are going
> to benefit from anything faster, and I would probably propose that for
> users who enjoy the convenience of Wifi and laptops over desktops or
> workstations that the point where speed becomes capacity is probably
> lower than 300Mbps.
>
> Used to work at a small ISP and always avoid the use of the term
> 'speed', we spoke about bandwidth and capacity. When a corporate
> customer phoned one day to check whether we were experiencing problems
> (they were also a friend of mine by the way) and complained of slow
> speed Internet, I said "Gosh, let me check.... do you know you're
> right, the electrons are moving slower, and the speed of light seems a
> lot lower than it was yesterdday!!".

I struggle to explain this - most customers equate bandwidth with speed.

The simplest analogy I've always offered is "with bandwidth, 2 lanes @
60km/hr only moves far fewer cars than 8 lanes @ 60km/hr". Oh, look at
that, the speed didn't change...

As you say, at a certain point (and I think waaaaaaay below 1Gbps), an
expectation of a physical increase in the speed of data transfer becomes
stable, and at that point, the extra bandwidth is allowing you to
accommodate more users, with each one being happy at the same time. When
customers expect that that taking their Enterprise service from 10Gbps
to 20Gbps will dramatically improve how quickly Youtube loads, you can
understand the nightmare ISP's have to deal with. And Heaven forbid we
only extract 19.5Gbps out of that, instead of the full 20Gbps :-\...

Mark.