BBC’s iPlayer TV, like peer-to-peer offerings before it, is starting to stress British Internet services providers (ISPs), apparently. BBC is going to start streaming H.264 video as well as On2 VP6, say the analysts at Telco 2.0. For starters that will mean a leap in throughput from 300 kbps to 800 kbps, plus serve up that content in ways that will require transit bandwidth. And transit means real cost for ISPs, who will now start to pay transit fees on the bandwidth demand created by the new feeds.

 

As more content entities start to distribute content over the Internet, at higher image densities and with wider end user demand, the costs are going to keep growing. At some point, ISPs will have to raise costs to end users, or some new business arrangement will have to be struck betweeen the ISPs and the content providers.

 

Whatever else "network neutrality" may involve, it also involves a real clash of business interests between content providers, who obviously would like free access to an emerging distribution platform, and ISPs who have to create and maintain the platform without the benefit of a revenue stream to offset the costs. "Internet freedom" is a legitimate issue. But it also is intimately bound up with the business models various value chain participants can contemplate. Sooner or later, something will have to give.

 

Gary Kim (News - Alert) (News - Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Mae Kowalke