The Lifeline of Digital Media: Understanding the Crucial Role of Network Bandwidth in Today’s Multimedia Landscape

Bandwidth is the name of the game

Xfinity Cable modem photo by author

The IBM personal computer had barely become available for purchase by individuals in 1980. They cost around 5k. The Internet as we know it today was only available to major universities. Let’s take a journey as we travel down memory lane and see how slow the Internet speeds were compared to how fast it is today.

I graduated in May of 1980. That means that our family did not have access to a personal computer or the Internet. Google was not a thing and if I wanted to research something for a school paper I used the Encyclopedia Britannica. If my parents could afford to buy the encyclopedias I could do that or ask my parents to take me to the library that was 15 miles away. Once at the library I could search the card catalog for the number to the book I wanted to check out. Do you remember the card catalog system?

I included some hyperlinks for you to review in case you are interested in the history of both the Britannica encyclopedia and the card catalog system.

I became interested in computers at the end of the 1990’s and started dabbling in personal computer hardware. I bought an 8086, then an 8088 then an x286 system. First, I learned about how the hardware was put together and then I installed DOS 5.0 (disk operating system) which came with a 250-page manual.

The next step on the path to computer literacy was to run a BBS system on these different hardware platforms. A BBS is a system that a System Operator (SysOP) maintains. You can dial their BBS number (modem) and access the Bulletin Board System which offers news forums of all types and download software files. Some BBS Operators even offered a subscription to access the Internet or the World Wide Web. They did this by paying for an ISDN circuit for their home or business.

This is where we will journey into the world of network speed or bandwidth and how it is so important.

To get online back in the day you had to have a Modem and either Prodigy, AOL or CompuServe software. Both the hardware and software platform coupled with an analog phone line would allow you to access the Internet. If you were lucky and could afford it you would have a dedicated phone line for the modem. If not, you might be disconnected if someone picked up the phone to make a phone call.

The software products I mentioned were applications that connected you to that specific system. If you were an AOL user, then you are familiar with the 1998 movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan called “You’ve Got Mail”

During the 90’s your Modem speeds were the following:

· 1993–14.4 kilobits per second (kbps)

· 1994–28.8 kilobits per second kbps

· 1996–33.6 kilobits per second kbps

· 1998–56 Kbps per second

According to my Google search on modem speeds:

“The 56 kbps modem was the fastest speed possible on an analog phone line. However, the actual speed of data transfer was often much slower than the advertised speed due to infrastructure latencies. For example, a 28 kbps modem might only average 1–6 kbps for large file downloads. This meant that downloading software over the internet could take hours per file.”

Our children have no clue about this since they were born in the era of high speed always on connections to the Internet. We also have smartphones that have more computing power than that of when we put people on the moon.

Here is what happened. You would hook your analog phone line into the modem in the back of your computer and you would start up AOL or whatever and click on the dial button.

When that happened, you would listen to this gawd awful squalling as your modem would attempt to connect to the Internet service provider on the other end. If you were luck y you might make the connection on the first, try. If not, you could sit there and wait for your computer to finally connect. At the other end there were banks of modems sitting on shelves that would answer your call, connect you and send you on your way into online nirvana.

As an AOL user you would get connected and if you had e-mail you would hear the “You’ve got mail” announcement. How exciting it was to get e-mail from someone on the Internet.

Once you got connected to your ISP you could use a web browser like Netscape Navigator or Firefox. You could use search engines for things on the Internet. At those painfully slow connections searching for information could take hours.

Fast forward to today and we have always on Internet connections to our ISP via our local cable companies that provide you with what is called a cable modem. There is also 5G Internet which is available to some households via the cellular networks. If you are in rural areas, you may use the Dish Network which provides Internet access via a personal satellite dish. Back in the day those suckers were HUGE.

Some of the fastest internet providers in the US include:

• Google Fiber: Offers speeds of up to 8,000 Mbps
• Windstream: Offers speeds of up to 2,000 Mbps
• Xfinity: Offers speeds of up to 1,200 Mbps
• Mediacom: Offers speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps

So, the question is this. Why is network bandwidth so important today?

Here is what Google has on the topic:

“Bandwidth is important to internet users because it determines how quickly data can be sent and received over a network, essentially meaning higher bandwidth translates to faster internet speeds, allowing for smoother experiences like streaming high-definition videos, downloading large files, and multitasking across multiple devices without lag or buffering. It is like the capacity of a data highway, with more bandwidth allowing for faster traffic flow.”

Not only do we like super smooth access when watching our favorite movies but there are gamers who connect themselves to players all over the world in things like Halo or Games of Thrones. Those games require high speed Internet access due to the high-quality graphics, video and action.

Now that we have explored the advancement of network bandwidth between 1990 and today, we need to consider how we are connected to that bandwidth. We connect via tablets, smartphones or personal computers. These devices are comprised of advanced electronics and have fast processors, lots of RAM and disk space.

Not only do you need to have superfast bandwidth, but you need devices that can handle it.

On a personal note, I need high speed bandwidth and computing power because I have two podcasts and do video editing. I need computing power for processing the videos and doing production and I need bandwidth to upload the 5 GB or larger video files to Spotify and other podcast hosting systems.

In summary technology continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Before you know it we will have fiber optics connections to our homes. Traditional TV and cable networks will be replaced by streaming services. Today we already have streaming services, and that access is the future of entertainment.

Cable companies like Comcast and others bundle Internet, Cable TV channels and VOIP (voice over IP) for ridiculous charges each month. Many people are tired of the high prices and are cutting the cord to their cable companies and choosing to use specific streaming services instead.

When you cut the cord, you need to be aware of increasing subscription costs. You can have subscriptions through Apple and Google. Some of those are software based and some are things like Amazon Music and Books.

Subscription services add up quickly and you may find yourself in the same boat you were in with the cable company and their bundled services. Make sure to keep track of your subscriptions and only pay for the ones you use. Also be sure to keep track of any trial subscriptions and cancel the subscriptions you do not need.

It all adds up and it can wreck your budget.