To Infinity, and Beyond!

Don’t tell Time Warner, but lots of businesses are salivating at the prospect of effectively infinite bandwidth at very low cost. Network applications continue to exploit the fact that an increasing number of devices are always connected. The article sites Japanese Coke machines that are are notifying bottlers when they are low on product and beginning to report consumption trends in real time. Many people already enjoy connected DVRs that allow you to program or even watch television programs on your cell phone. There are also digital photo frames to which you can push images from remote locations. And this is just the beginning.

Now that analog television is finally dead, the airwaves will start to be used to provide next generation wireless connectivity for your phone, your car, your home and everything in it. As that happens, increasing numbers of everyday devices will connect wirelessly. We may not know just yet what they’ll talk about, but once that infrastructure is in place, innovative people will come up with all kinds of useful (as well as many frivolous) scenarios.

The bottom line is that the clear trend is toward more and more devices being connected, and those devices talking more and more. Digital innovation and network bandwidth are now moving in lockstep. Networks that facilitate high bandwidth net neutral communications will thrive. Those that seek to limit bandwidth, for profit or any other motive, will be left in the digital dust.

Thus, it would appear that Time Warner and Comcast should start stocking up on Pledge.