[opendtv] High-def could choke Internet, ISPs fear

High-def could choke Internet, ISPs fear

By Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer  |  May 14, 2006

NEW YORK --Every day, it seems, a new service pops up offering to 
send you video over the Internet. "Desperate Housewives," Stephen 
Colbert heckling the president, clips of bad dancers at wedding 
parties: It's all there.

You may be up for it, but is the Internet?

The answer from the major Internet service providers, the telephone 
and cable companies, is "no." Small clips are fine, but TV-quality 
and especially high-definition programming could make the Internet 
choke.

Most home Internet use is in brief bursts -- an e-mail here, a Web 
page there. If people start watching streaming video like they watch 
TV -- for hours at a time -- that puts a strain on the Internet that 
it wasn't designed for, ISPs say, and beefing up the Internet's 
capacity to prevent that will be expensive.

To offset that cost, ISPs want to start charging content providers to 
ensure delivery of large video files, for example.

Internet activists and consumer groups are vehemently against those 
plans, saying they amount to tilting the Internet's level playing 
field, one of the things that encourages innovation. They want 
legislation to guarantee a "neutral" Internet, but prospects appear 
slim.

At the heart of the debate is a key question: How much would it 
really cost the Internet carriers to provide a couple of hours of 
prime-time TV over their networks every day?

The carriers are playing their cards fairly close to their chest, but 
there are ways to get close to an answer.

...

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/05/14/high_definition_video_could_choke_internet/



 
 
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