We enjoy, we share, we chat, we write, we socialize, we click.
But I don’t think many of think about how the internet actually works.
Check this piece out from Ars Technica.
Of particular interest to me is the bit about the ‘last 100 metres’, where they talk about bringing internet to end consumers at a speed of 500-800 MBPS (megabits per second). That compares just a touch different than the current 4-5 MBPS experienced in most households.
Just like we needed big highways in the 1900s to accommodate all of our cars, the digital highway will needs LOTS of bandwidth to take care of our streaming, downloading, gaming, business activities, ecommerce, file sharing and other activities.
The one thing I’d love to see every municipality in Canada start doing is invest in open conduits and a big pile of fibre every time a road is opened. Yes, it would cost a few extra bucks to build, but the gains in efficiency would far outweigh the costs.