Thursday, November 9, 2017

Increase in Demand for Data- Verizon Wireless

Research shows that over the next 5 years, global traffic will be heavily increasing throughout the country. This is driven because of the increase in devices as well as the demand for HD streaming when using the internet. If you look at a technological device in 10 years, we did not have millions of apps that required High Definition quality. By 2020, approximately 70% of all the mobile traffic data is projected to be video. Most of our mobile data that we use has some sort of video (Social Media, Netflix, Video, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.). By 2020 , the IoT is expected to double. To quantify this more, in 2015 the global data usage was 72.5 exabytes (Estes).



Country/Region
Avg. Mbps
1
South Korea
29.0
2
Norway
21.3
3
Sweden
20.6
4
Hong Kong
19.9
5
Switzerland
18.7
6
Latvia
18.3
7
Japan
18.2
8
Netherlands
17.9
9
Czech Republic
17.8
10
Finland
17.7
16
United States
15.3

So what's the issue? The issue with the increased demand for data, Verizon faces the problem when it is at the last mile infrastructure where the fiber optic cables interact with the copper wires for the last mile and bring the broadband connection to the home. Compared to fiber optic cables, the cooper wires have a much lower bandwidth which gives the capable for internet for the users. Currently Verizon faces this issue when there's high demand of internet at the time, but with the increase of demand expected to almost double in 5 years, this issue will become more common.

Although creations by Verizon such as LTE has made a significant difference, the increase of that is expected to come in the next 5 years will only make this temporary. Verizon has started to create a solution to the problem that could hit their company heavily in the future with FiOS fiber networks. This was tested in Boston that replaced all copper cables with fiber but was shown to be too expensive a project so that may not be the best way to approach if they were trying to change all copper cables throughout the us. They have also looked into Wireless Technology, Webpass Inc's which is what google has used which is must faster and cheaper to install (Clark).

Regardless, Verizon will have to start looking at alternative methods as the demand of data will continuously increase. Thanks!

1. Do you think the cost of fiber optic cables are worth it?

2. Should companies such as Verizon work with other companies like AT&T or does that cause too much of a monopoly?

Clark, Jack. (July, 2016). Google Plots Cheaper Wireless Future to Expand Fiber Project. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-28/google-plots-cheaper-wireless-future-to-expand-fiber-project

Estes, Adam Clark. (March, 2015). Why America’s Internet is So Shitty and Slow.
http://gizmodo.com/why-americas-internet-is-so-shitty-and-slow-1686173744

5 comments:

  1. Hey ken,

    First off, great write up. I really enjoyed the part regarding the average internet speeds in each country. It really puts in perspective the lack of internet speed that we have in the United States. I believe that investing in fiber is worth it on both a short term and long term horizon. Copper wires have a max speed of around 1gbps while fiber has a max speed of 43 Tbps (Anthony, 2017). With the increase of streaming and availability of high quality streams, consumers will be requiring faster and faster internet speeds. As you pointed out with the Boston example, replacing fiber wires is extremely expensive but is a worthwhile investment.


    sources:

    Sebastian Anthony. (2014, October 27). 43Tbps over a single fiber: World's fastest network would let you download a movie in 0.2 seconds. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from https://www.extremetech.com/computing/187258-43tbps-over-a-single-fiber-worlds-fastest-network-would-let-you-download-a-movie-in-0-2-milliseconds

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ken,

    I enjoyed reading your write-up! My immediate reaction to the notion of an increased use in video media in the next years was to think about how this will affect phone cameras! The amazing quality of phone cameras we are already taking for granted has of course not always been this great. I looked into the topic a bit and found some interesting facts, both regarding phone cameras themselves and the consumers. The biggest issue smartphone sensors struggle with are to harness light, allowing pictures to look great even in poor light conditions. To do this Apple and Samsung use their own image signal processors. However, many high-end Android handsets use the integrated image signal processors in Qualcomm's Snapdragon system-on-a-chip, which keeps camera features relatively consistent from phone to phone. Of course the mere size constraint mean that phonecameras will never be able to compete with professional DSLR cameras. Especially, the zoom feature is just not possible with the consumers desire for sleek, skinny phones. However, smartphone cameras have already decimated the point-and-shoot industry and with a myriad of photo enhancing and editing apps, consumers are more than happy to use their smart phone cameras for just about everything now - including video media!

    Sources:
    Tim Moynihan. (2015, December 21. Your Smartphone Camera Should Suck. Here's Why It Doesn't. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://www.wired.com/2015/12/smartphone-camera-sensors/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Ken,

    This was a very interesting read. I really enjoyed learning about all the different mbps that each region may have. I always thought the United States would be in the top 5 of this category considering how many advances in technology that we have made in the past ten years. Overall, I think the cost of fiber cables will definitely be worth it in the next five years simply because who ever upgrades to them will have a competitive advantage. It may be expensive and that is why a company like Verizon or AT&T should start off upgrading slowly in certain regions around the world. Also, I do not think it would be a good idea for two companies to work together to upgrade to fiber optic cables simply because then it puts other companies far behind which will lead to them going out of business. Overall, companies should slowly upgrade to fiber optic cables in regions that are highly populated and then assess how much more they will need to buy in the next five years instead of doing it all at once.

    Sources: https://www.perle.com/articles/comcast-upgrade-reflects-increasing-importance-of-fiber-optic-cable-649439.shtml

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ken,

    I strongly believe that the U.S. is going to absolutely need to revamp its network speeds if it wants to compete with the rest of the world in the future. With applications needing more and more data, speed is going to be a determining factor in getting work done efficiently. Not to mention, with cyber warfare becoming more and more prevalent, networks speeds are going to be increasingly valued when both attacking and defending both companies and government agencies. Even now, many cybersecurity professionals are scrambling to find faster network speeds in order to detect and prevent cyber attacks. In many cases, if these attacks are not found in real time, they are able to do incredible amounts of damage to the target. Hackers are shifting towards faster and faster speeds which means that we must be doing the same.

    Source: http://www.aberdeenessentials.com/techpro-essentials/shifting-to-detection-cyber-security-in-the-data-deluge/

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is not a new argument. We are slow because we are owned by cable companies who have no incentive to go faster. Cities are doing it on their own and paying the infrastructure cost (e.g., San Diego, Boston). Now with no open internet (bye bye net neutrality), it will only cost you more to have slower internet than other countries. Seriously.

    ReplyDelete