Most consumers pay some attention to their downstream bandwidth speeds, which can affect how quickly iTunes files finish downloading or the quality of movie streaming, but upstream speeds have never been as big of an issue. That’s clearly starting to change as Internet service providers like Verizon and Qwest offer data packages with increased upstream speeds so users can upload information faster. These boosts in speeds are following an increase in uploading activity and could change the landscape for service providers and startups.
Demand for upstream bandwidth is growing. Floyd Wagoner, a director of marketing and communications for Motorola Access Networks Solutions, said in an interview today that a U.S. cable provider has seen peak upstream bandwidth use increase by 24 percent from 2007 to 2008. The same provider saw average upstream bandwidth use increase by 17 percent. The unnamed cable provider was only measuring upstream use at 10,000 subscriber homes, but the point of the monitoring was to help forecast the cable company’s network buildout and customer demand, so the sample is assumed to be fairly representative.
Continues @ http://gigaom.com
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