Does Metered Bandwidth Endanger Streaming HD?
As HD streaming picks up steam, it appears that broadband internet providers are starting to get worried about bandwidth usage. AT&T is the latest company to be testing metered bandwidth according to Money.CNN:
AT&T says it will have tiers ranging from 20 GB per month to 150 GB per month with a $1 per-gigabyte overage fee for new customers. Later this year, existing AT&T High-Speed Internet customers in Reno will become a part of this trial if their monthly usage exceeds 150 GB in one month. These customers will receive a usage amount of 150 GB per month.
Metered bandwith worries us here at NAV because the bulk of our TV viewing is through streaming video. We're especially worried about bandwidth when Netflix starts streaming HD over the Netflix Player. According to the same article, Netflix has it covered:
Roku, the maker of the Netflix Player set-top box, said over the weekend that it "will be using Advanced Profile encodes which will deliver HD at substantially lower bit-rates than what Xbox is offering." This reinforces what the company had told us before -- that it's not concerned about bandwidth caps because new technologies allow for higher-quality at lower bit-rates. These advanced compression techniques, however, will have some impact on the quality and whether the content will truly be in HD.
Wow, that sure is good news! Let us know if you're being capped on internet usage where you live.
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Posted by William Hungerford at November 6, 2008 2:55 PM
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