10 Reasons You Can Never Have Enough Internet Bandwidth

1. Multimedia – Computers, and even mobile devices, have long outgrown the basic email/web surfing functions of decades past. Today’s users need far more bandwidth to do the tasks, and enjoy the entertainment that’s currently available.
2. Speed – The more bandwidth that a network has, the more data it is capable of carrying in a given period of time. That means the network will transfer data faster, which is something everyone wants.
3. Expansion – If you’ve got more bandwidth, you are better equipped to add users and/or devices on your network without any significant performance degradation. You won’t suffer from the typical bottle-necking that occurs when there isn’t enough to go around.
4. Population Density – By the same token, when your home network is on a shared network – as most internet connections will be – you’re sharing a finite amount of bandwidth with all other users who connect through your local ISP server.
5. Transferring Data – Since we’re transferring larger files up- and downstream (streaming videos, music files, movies), there is a greater need for bandwidth than before. Most of today’s apps need far more bandwidth in order to function well.
6. Throttling – Some ISP’s – notably satellite servers – will have bandwidth caps applied to their users in order to ensure that all users have access. These caps are known as FAP’s, or Fair Access Policies. When a user exceeds his allowed bandwidth maximum, his computer will experience the effects of throttling back the data transfer rate.
7. Connecting the World – The ITU, or International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the U.N., is working feverishly to “connect the unconnected by 2015”. Third world countries around the world are being brought into the digital age. With added users comes the need for additional bandwidth to carry the increased traffic.
8. Sites Crash – Every now and then, you’ll hear of a website crashing, because it was hit with more queries/visits than it was equipped to handle; or sites that are shut down for exceeding the amount of bandwidth they were allotted by their host server.
9. Apps – Anyone with an iPhone knows that apps are virtually breeding like rabbits somewhere between here and Silicone Valley. Companies are creating them by the minute, it seems, and they all take up both memory and bandwidth, as many of them run constantly in the background of the devices on which they’re installed.
10. Wireless/Wi-Fi – Now that so many computer users are operating more than one device, and going mobile, there is demand for internet in virtually every nook and cranny that people travel to or through. It’s no longer enough to just have connections at home, users increasingly expect an always-on, always-connected internet.

Contacts and sources:

Kate Croston