Thursday, February 24, 2011

Internet Speed Increase?

The Internet is an important part of our lives. Nine out of ten times, the first application opened on a computer will be the Internet browser, which may be used to check Facebook or browse a headline or two on the New York Times. As appealing the Internet is to people, the speed at which we browse is a big part of what makes the internet attractive. Remember the days of dial-up? The internet was not as attractive then as it is now because it wasn’t efficient to browse the internet with transfer speeds of 56 kbits/s. Now we get transfer speeds of 5000 kbits/s, so browsers like you and I are content with what the Internet offers and the speeds we get them at.

As fast as South Korean connection’s are, currently the fastest internet connections globally, their governments aim to make it even faster. New York Times reports in an article that the South Korean government plans to pour billions of dollars into increasing internet speeds in homes up to 1 GB/sec by 2012. To put this number into perspective, Mark McDonald of the New York Times describes it as “more than 200 times as fast as the average household setup in the United States.”

Seems like a pretty unreasonable proposition considering South Korea’s known internet addiction issues and its attempt to help net-addicted youth. Think back to the blog post regarding the South Korean couple letting their child die because of their infatuation with virtual daughter. As outrageous as it sounds to increase an already fast internet in a country where net addiction is clearly an issue, gigabit internet is apparently a necessity for the future. Don Norman, co-founder of one of the leading technological consultant companies Nielson Norman Group says, “We’re all going to be doing cloud computing, for example, and that won’t work if you’re not always connected. Games. Videoconferencing. Video on demand. All this will require huge bandwidth, huge speed.”

It’s common knowledge that as we continue to move forward, technology and the internet will become a larger portion of our lives. This movement to increase internet speeds in South Korea is being emulated in other countries like the US as President Obama unveils a multi-billion dollar broadband spending program in his January State of the Union address. I personally think that the billions of dollars being funneled into increasing internet speed can be better spent elsewhere. Will viewing a page 200 times faster than we do now going to make the browsing experience that much more enjoyable? As nice as having super fast internet would be, the world is facing much more pressing issues.

3 comments:

Mathew said...

I completely agree that the world has bigger problems to deal with. The billions of dollars being poured into these projects would be much better spent on improving education and combating other important issues. Having fast internet is definitely necessary to keep up with the current economic and business markets, yet I do not see the need to be able to load a page 200 times faster than we currently can. I for one am perfectly happy with internet speed where I am currently living.

Edris B said...

In my opinion, this isn't such a bad move on the government's part (at least the article makes it sound like it's a government-funded project). I see it as the country investing in itself and its businesses. I think that holding claim to the title of "country with the fastest internet in the world" holds at least some incentive for foreign investment as well. It can also be argued that efficiency will substantially increase due to the increased transfer rates.

Then again, there are a lot of other places which could stand some attention from the government, such as their worrisome environmental issues, human trafficking, and their military situation with their neighbors to the north.

A last thing to consider are the short run economic effects of such a move (job creation, foreign investment, blah blah). Essentially, the most efficient way to increase GDP and the standard of living of those within a country is through technological advancement.

Peter said...

I agree with you general idea that investing into the internet at a certain time might not seem like the best idea, but at the same time, I disagree with the idea that there is something better to do. The world as a whole at the moment is in a recession, and with what money you have, it would be a good idea to improve one’s infrastructure. To many, that would just mean highways and buildings, but in this more modern world, the internet has started to move into that definition. As more people and businesses start to rely on the internet, it becomes more important to have an internet that can support those demands.