The Future of Bandwidth

Consumers and businesses are devouring bandwidth at a torrid pace. They’re using the Web to talk on the phone, access software over the Internet, and download increasingly large files such as high-definition videos.

Marc Agar, CEO of CA Communications, Inc., a Wayzata-based telecommunications consulting firm, tells his business clients that they’re going to need more and more bandwidth using different types of technology. “If you don’t have a fast connection, you might be losing revenue and customers because you can’t provide the right applications,” he says.

The escalating need for bandwidth is readily apparent at Qwest Communications. The provider has seen “explosive growth” as client traffic on its networks doubles every 15 months, says Qwest Minnesota’s President John Stanoch. This prompted Qwest to invest $300 million in its fiber optic system, which will boost speeds for two million business and residential digital subscriber line DSL) customers in 23 of its top markets.

So far, technology providers have kept up with demand for bandwidth. But what about the future? It’s an issue now under discussion among members of the new Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force, a group comprised of providers, business customers, government representatives, consumers, and others. The Minnesota Legislature passed a bill this spring to create the task force, which will evaluate Minnesota’s broadband infrastructure, identify a level of service and connection speed that will be needed by 2015, and estimate costs for meeting these goals.

Concerned that broadband speeds in Minnesota and the United States overall are falling behind the rest of the world, State Representative Sandra Masin (DFL-Eagan) sponsored the bill. She cites a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that ranks the U.S. 15th worldwide for broadband usage for the second year in a row.

“We are competing with the rest of the world, and there are countries that are way ahead of what the United States has right now,” Masin says. “It’s important to the economy of our state that we have affordable, accessible technology. We might not need the ultra-high speeds right now, but sooner or later, we’ll be way outpaced.”

For now, though, telecommunications experts note that there are ways for businesses to get more out of their existing bandwidth. Many companies have started using multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) to prioritize their voice, video, and data service over one network, says Nita Singh, president and CEO of American Business Communication, Inc., an independent telecommunications management firm in Maple Grove.

For instance, if a company’s most important applications are customer relationship management (CRM) tools, anyone using CRM would have priority access to the fastest connections. Or a business with an Internet-based phone system can employ MPLS to make sure calls get priority over watching videos.