Is Bandwidth The Next New Currency?

May 14th, 2012 by

60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second.
Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day.
Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month.
Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years.
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US YouTube is localized in 39 countries and across 54 languages.
In 2011 YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or almost 140 views for every person on Earth.

iPads Sold To Date: ~60 million 

New iPad’s speedy 4G can use up data allotment in a flash …

Mar 21, 2012 … Less than 24 hours after buying the iPad + 4G — I was shocked by the note on my screen: “There is no data remaini…

As people consume more video (over 4 billion videos are viewed per day on YouTube),  Apple is promising a lot with their new ipad and making it easier to access and view HD videos on the internet.  As a result, consumers are finding that the new ipad device can handle HD video viewing better than ever but is this new experience coming at a premium price?

As data allotments are quickly used up and battery life is affected, consumers are going to want answers (or refunds – see below) as current infrastructure cannot keep up with the pace of demand.

Apple offers iPad refunds to Australian customers, report says  …

Mar 28, 2012 … The company takes the action following allegations by an Australian agency that it deceived people into thinking its n…

In 2007 when the first iphone was released consumers experienced major issues in service due to the amount of internet traffic introduced by the new device. Five years later, a similar situation is looming but this time the telecom companies have a head start. By limiting data consumption by new pricing models, they hope to keep the problem of running out of room at bay.

The airwaves are turning into a commodity and everyone is fighting to gain control of them. Verizon entered an agreement with cable companies in December costing $3.6 billion. AT&T’s recent failed T-Mobil transaction cost them $3 billion. Dish network is close to getting approval to use part of its airwaves for mobile devices.

For the consumer, companies gaining more spectrum may not mean lower costs. As the spectrum is finite eventually space will run out and possibly selling and trading bandwidth for goods may become a reality.

Richard Wingard is CEO of Euclid Discoveries where he and a team of video compression technologist are working on innovative ways to compress video to help decrease the amount of bandwidth needed for video viewing.  You can follow Richard on Twitter at @richardwingard.