ISPs Raising Speeds, Cut Latency, Say Cisco, Comcast, Verizon Executives
Speed is a defining criteria for the Internet, as well as latency and operability, said ISPs on Monday at an event on Capitol Hill sponsored by Broadband for America. Verizon FIOS speeds have expanded from 30 Mbps to 300 Mbps over the past ten years, said Sanjay Udani, director-Internet & technology policy, and next-generation Internet speeds will go to 10 Gbps or more. Comcast doubles its infrastructure every 18 months to meet demand, said Kevin McElearney, senior vice president-network engineering at Comcast Cable.
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"With the Internet of Things, we're going to move into the home with broadband and wireless connections,” said Eric Voit, Cisco director-technology architecture. “And we need to be able to run multiple technologies in the same box.” Low latency is important because it makes equipment fast, said Voit. “In the financial sector, we need to get the fastest response time possible, and this will be transferred to other systems later on.” This could also be transferred to telemedicine, said Voit, where complexity needs to be taken out of the network to get the tools to function and to help save lives around the world.
Different countries have different needs when it comes to broadband connectivity, said Voit, which can slow or speed individual technologies. “The FCC has scientific ways of measuring speed,” said Udani. “And in the United States, every speed is higher than marketed in the United States. This is not true in other countries around the world.”
"Nothing is secure on the Internet,” said McElearney. “It’s about risk mitigation.” The malware on smartphones is below 1 percent, said Voit, but in other countries, it’s higher because people get mobile apps from the public Internet and primarily through their carriers.
All of the companies represented on the panel have made efforts to reach out to last-mile customers. Comcast Essentials made broadband available to people who can’t afford it, said McElearney, which is especially important for education. The convenience of broadband is especially important because, using satellites, people can get Internet anywhere in the country, said Udani. Latency would be less likely to matter in these situations, because people can at least get some access, he said: “Eventually, people won’t notice that they are using Internet because it will become part of their daily lives."