Surprise: cable companies edging closer to bandwidth exigency

We know, it was a year ago yesterday that we had this very same conversation, but apparently, cable companies aren't heeding the advice of analysts. According to yet another study, this time by ABI Research, "cable providers will soon be faced with a serious bandwidth crunch" as more and more individuals look to online gaming, video-on-demand, and IPTV for enjoying their precious moments of leisure. Compounding the problem is the growing demand for more HD channels in the lineup, and considering that the satellite operators are already raising the bar, cable carriers can only play dumb for so much longer. Stan Schatt, VP and research director for ABI Research, was quoted as saying that "digital switching is key" to releasing some of the strain on current infrastructures, and while we aren't ones to believe that the influx of online TV delivery will debilitate the internet (or cable providers), something seemingly has to give -- and soon.

[Via Slashdot]

[Rick @ Aug 20th 2007 9:21AM]

Stan Schatt....his pants....pretty funny

[The Aggie CEO™ @ Aug 20th 2007 9:30AM]

Hmmmmmmmm

All I know is I want to have download speeds of 3Gbs+/s AND have EVERY Available HD Channel in Existence as SOON as it launches........

so ummmmmm

Time Warner needs to get it together........Digital is the way to go.......saves bandwidth meaning MORE channels.........I mean come on.......if Local Stations can do it surely a multibillion dollar company can too.....so they might as well do it now and avoid the headache later.........

[Constable Odo @ Aug 20th 2007 10:14AM]

I got TimeWarner in NYC and it's really getting frustrating with such lousy upload speeds. I'm getting video glitches in my HD channels and can't get HD channels such as NGC and Discovery. Super pathetic. As soon as Verizon FiOS is available to me, I'm jumping ship. Even Cablevision has been increasing speeds and costs less than TW, but it's not available in my area. I've had TW for about six years and it really hasn't improved all that much. I'm gonna hate to have to change my main mail address, but I'm just about fed up.

[The Aggie CEO™ @ Aug 20th 2007 11:08AM]

yea I want NGC HD and Discovery HD too........

and the upload speed of 2-3Mbps is garbage AND I have "Turbo Charged" Road Runner for an extra $10/month......I mean sure I have 8Mbps download speeds which are often actually more around 7.5Mbps, but with me uploading files due to web design I have LARGE files to upload and it would be nice if I could do so quickly......but here in NC Road Runner is the fastest and most reliable broadband service so its my only choice really.......I just hope SOMETHING better comes around and SOON

[The Aggie CEO™ @ Aug 20th 2007 11:13AM]

and as for the HD glitches I get that from time to time too......they said it was because the cable going into my building was old..........

[waiownsyou @ Aug 20th 2007 9:32AM]

That's all nice and all, but too bad digital satellite signals get pwned by clouds

[Mark @ Aug 20th 2007 10:27AM]

No, they don't, i live in the UK (where it rains A LOT) i've had digital satellite for about 7 years now and only the very worst weather affects the signal, the kind of weather that is usually accompanied by a power cut, so it's doesn't matter anyway

[johnzilla @ Aug 20th 2007 12:55PM]

I disagree completely that clouds do not affect satellite signals. I live in Michigan where the weather changes constantly, rain and snow both as well as overcasts. I had DirecTV and couldn't stand the constant signal loss caused by bad weather. I could literally watch the storm moving in on the Weather Channel's radar map and determine when I would lose signal. Losing power was never an issue.

[Pedro @ Aug 20th 2007 9:47AM]

Careful... your time warner owners might smack you down for talking bad about cable.

[Beefman @ Aug 20th 2007 9:49AM]

It's cable. They don't HAVE to carry analog signals. You can bet those will go away pretty soon. 36 channels was the standard YEARS ago. That's 216Mhz. My cable system is not the best and still has ~75 analog channels. That's 450Mhz.

Cable's bandwidth crunch will go away as soon as they realize that Cablecard IS in their best interest and stop playing the 'ZOMGwemusthaveSTBsOrNOTHING!' game. Then, when that gets tight, move the entire network to IP streaming. They already do HD on demand, so cut out all the broadcasting period and simply make EVERY channel 'on demand'. Set up multicasting so the highest demand channels don't need to be streamed repetitively yet aren't there if no one's watching. *gasp* Look at that. BANDWIDTH!

Sheesh, folks, cable is good for almost a GIGAHERTZ of spectrum FREE AND CLEAR. It doesn't NEED to be fiber. Cable hasn't even begun to optimize... once they do they can be fully competitive with FTTH.

[Phour ZwanZig @ Aug 20th 2007 11:10AM]

What your talkin about is basicly what Switch Digital is all about.. Currently we are employin SwDig in our service area.. But truth is that the real hog is the Analog signals.. And BTW our CableCard boxes are workin great.. SA ones atleast.. Sumsung, I wish I could say its doin good.. Still very buggy.. But I know its not the cards and its the firmware on the box..

[Nathan DBB @ Aug 20th 2007 10:10AM]

Why would they heed the warning?

A capacity crisis often MAKES HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY FOR THE PROVIDERS. The cable companies are going to let it happen so they can screw us with overage charges. They can also use the capacity crisis to use QOS to shut out all of their competitors' services.

The California energy crisis was manufactured for profit. The cable companies are not manufacturing this crisis, but they are not going to keep it from happening because the crisis will make them a lot of money.

[John @ Aug 20th 2007 11:39AM]

If there is a bandwidth crunch, I don't think Verizon bandwidth traders are going to call up someone at a routing hub and ask them to shut down for a few hours.

This would be in reference to what Enron power traders did during the energy crisis, calling up power plants and asking them to just shut down for a while, if you are wondering..

[NHAnimator @ Aug 20th 2007 10:10AM]

...and Comcast has me edging closer to wallet exigency.

[draterrojam @ Aug 20th 2007 5:52PM]

amen to that! i can't stand comcast, and since they are the only provider in the area they won't give me deals, but when I lived three town over where RCN is, they were more than happy to play the games. Now they've up'd the prices so high and the connection are junk.

[buzweaver @ Aug 20th 2007 11:07AM]

Change is nice, however when it comes to change in any sort of business or service the cost of that change is passed along to the consumer.

[paul @ Aug 20th 2007 11:32AM]

you guys talk about Satellite HDTV like it's much better than cable... give me a break. Marginally at best. Cable HDTV is nothing to speak of (especially Bright House... dear lord, can we lower our HD bitrate any more? I want even MORE artifacting! *sigh*) but Satellite is NOT the solution.

[Eric @ Aug 20th 2007 12:14PM]

Yep. Analog TV has to go. Most systems are about 60%/40% analog/digital from a bandwidth perspective, but opposite for number of services. There are still a FEW MILLION analog sets out there that need a set top converter. There are many, many people who can't stand set top converters and will do everything in their power to avoid them (including complaining to their local government when the subject of mandatory converters comes up). It doesn't matter how easy you make it to use, how many features you have, there is a "vocal majority" of people who just plain refuse to use a set top box (to the point of keeping cable, even though they could get the same package for much less money from Dish network). Luckily, our congress is going to step in to help. As reported last week, IBM was awarded a contract to handle the logistics of handing out a $40 coupon to everyone who has to buy a DTV set top converter when the analog broadcast ends in 2009. Maybe combining that with moving TCM, PAX, Family, Halmark, and Fox News to digital tiers will finally get them to try one out. That and maybe a simplified interface that doesn't give them too many options, just on/off, volume +/- and channel up/down. Maybe even make a virtual channel that scrolls through the channels in a slow, painful manner while barking distracting advertisements at you (DAMN! Missed it again!).

[Eric @ Aug 20th 2007 12:21PM]

Sorry for the self-reply, but another thing: When the analog channels go away, it will be possible to increase the upstream bandwidth as well. Most active devices in a cable system are able to pass upstream signals from 5MHz to about 200MHz. However, channels 2-6 and 14-20 are taking up that space now. Once they are mapped to digital, the cable co can put them wherever they want. Right now, anything below channel 2 (55.25MHz) is for upstream signals, and a lot of it is not useful for a lot of reasons. By changing out a few inexpensive parts in the active devices, it will make it possible get a lot of upstream bandwidth. Of course, there are still a lot of active devices out there, but sending a crew out to change out modules is much cheaper then sending out a crew to rebuild a cable system.

[Shrapnel @ Aug 20th 2007 1:24PM]

Its easier for them just to use traffic shaping and throttle anyone who's using the internet for Bittorrent, gaming, VoIP, or online videos. They're cheep bastards like that.

[iliarules @ Aug 20th 2007 5:24PM]

If they found a way to kill all P2P software, it'd cut down on our bandwidth usage by about 80%... but people wouldn't be happy about it. Personally I'd be okay with it only if we had low cost alternatives to the things we use P2P for now. If I could stream movies and tv shows, using tons of newly available bandwidth, from a reliable and legal site then I wouldn't have any use for file sharing anyway.

[JKac @ Aug 20th 2007 5:56PM]

And tell me why the cable companies will care? The US Federal Government has them so protected they don't have to compete for our business.

[Matt @ Aug 20th 2007 8:55PM]

I thought digital switching renders CableCards useless.......down with Time Warner...I think I'll just stay with my Over The Air antenna.

[basura @ Aug 20th 2007 10:55PM]

It's already happened. Are you a TW user? Here's how they plan on putting the screws to you.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18468495

My buddies and I have noticed that if we start any PTP (limewire, mldonkey, bittorrent, etc) we immediately get sloooooowed the **** down. I've not seen it with UseNET however, but I'm sure it'll happen there as well.

[The Aggie CEO™ @ Aug 20th 2007 12:38PM]

why would you use any of those anyways?? they are ran by the RIAA........smh