Jim Cicconi, vice-president of legislative affairs for AT and T, has warned that the current systems that constitute the Internet would not be able to cope with the increasing volumes of video and user-generated content being uploaded.

According to Cicconi, atleast $55 billion worth of investment was needed in new infrastructure in the next three years in the US alone, with the figure rising to $130 billion to improve the network worldwide.

AT and T itself is investing close to $13 billion for the upgradation of its network.

‘Eight hours of video is loaded onto YouTube every minute. Everything will become HD (High-Definition) very soon, and HD is 7 to 10 times more bandwidth-hungry than typical video today. Video will be 80 percent of all traffic by 2010, up from 30 percent today,’ he said.

Mr. Cicconi also seems to believe that government intervention with respect to the Internet is not necessarily viable. His main argument stems from the fact that the free market attracts innovators to provide technologies that provide similar functions at probably even lower prices. Government Regulation fundamentally seeks to maintain the status quo and thus while it may spend more on employing technologies and ensure fruitful investment; it does not ensure the most viable investment.

Think about it this way, if Web 2.0 was dictated by Government Intervention, we may not have had the Google’s of this world. Diversity would have been limited. We may not have had social media. The laissez faire economy essentially is another manifestation of crowd sourcing (albeit on a much more refined level).

The figures stated by AT and T are alarming especially for an Indian context because one has not really heard of anything from the Indian Government in terms of Investment figures. The last I heard was that the Government is planning to distribute the Internet to Rural Areas over Power Grids.

For now, with respect to Internet Distribution across India, we probably need to move towards a free market model. Look at how the mobile penetration and coverage across the country has sky rocketed after the market was de – regulated. It’s a market with high barriers to entry no – doubt but then so is mobile telephony. The market will eventually work out a revenue model for itself through innovation and research.

Without a proactive approach from the Government (with respect to de – regulation) combined with Market Forces we may be faced with a downward spiral of lower internet speeds. 

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