Technology360

Mark Cuban: The Internet is Dead and Boring

Mark Cuban has been taking on the Internet of late and this week weighed in again.  He writes:

... Every new technological, mechanical or intellectual breakthrough has its day, days, months and years. But they don't rule forever. That's the reality.  ¶  Every generation has its defining breakthrough. Cars, TV, Radio, Planes,highways, the wheel, the printing press, the list goes on forever. I'm sure in each generation to whom the invention was a breakthrough it may have been heretical to consider those inventions "dead and boring". The reality is that at some point they stop changing. They stop evolving. They become utilities or utilitarian and are taken for granted.   ¶  Some of you may not want to admit it, but that's exactly what the net has become. A utility. It has stopped evolving. Your Internet experience today is not much different than it was 5 years ago. ...

Link:  Blog Maverick. 

Update 27 August 2007:
In a follow-up post today, Cuban says The Internet Is Still Dead and Boring.  Link:  Blog Maverick.

Update 29 August 2007:
Be sure also to read broadband expert Om Malik's surprisingly supportive response, Cuban's Theory & The Internet Infrastructure Questions.  Link:  GigaOm.  --Dennis

The BBC's iPlayer and ISP pushback

The BBC's current iPlayer beta has attracted a lot of comment in the blogosophere -- mostly about DRM and the Windows XP limits of the beta version -- but real story here is that ISPs in the UK have chosen this announcement as an occasion to make political points about capacity issues.  These complaints have the strong potential to be heard elsewhere in the world also as more and and bigger video files transit the Web, especially via P2P networks, legal and otherwise.  Here is a summary of stories about this development.

Jeremy Penston, iPlayer Politics: Behind the ISPs vs BBC row.  Link:  The Register.

Chris Williams, BT rubbishes BBC bandwidth throttling reports.  Link:  The Register.

Jack Schofield, ISPs warn BBC over iPlayer bandwidth use.  Link: The Guardian.  Included mostly for its links.

Bobbie Johnson, Bandwidth threat as on-demand TV grows.  Link: The Guardian.

Om Malik, Broadband ISP's Fear of the Web Video.  Link:  GigaOM.

Tim Ferguson, BBC iPlayer a Bandwidth Hog? Link: BusinessWeek.

Robert Andrews, BBC iPlayer Bandwidth Concerns - More Investment Needed, Regulator Says.  Link: paidContent.

Update 20 August 2007:

William Cooper, Broadband service providers threaten to throttle iPlayer.  Link: Informitv.

Then, to put this into some perspective, also read Om Malik's Online Video To Boost Internet Protocol (IP) Traffic.  He writes:

It should come as no surprise: the big and fat video files are one of the main reason why the bandwidth glut created by overbuilding in the telecom boom of 1990s is evaporating. The good news is that the demand for bandwidth is not going to end any time soon.  ¶  A report released by Cisco Systems (CSCO) predicts that consumer-related traffic running over IP networks is going to grow at a compound annual rate of 58 percent from 2006 to 2011, and will end up totaling 17 exabytes per month by 2011. ...

Link:  NewTeeVee.  --Dennis

IntraNets vs InterNets

Mark Cuban is in the HDTV business, among other things,  and recently wrote a provocative piece in his blog about "why the best days of the Internet are behind it."  He writes:

... What is the increase in your broadband speed THROUGHPUT over the past 1,2,5 or 10 years ? I went from about 200k in 1997 to about 800k (on a 3mbs advertised number) today. An increase of only 600k. True, its cheaper now than then, but 600k is only 600k. Most people think the throughput TO THE INTERNET of our home broadband connections will increase significantly over the next few years. It wont. Other than dropping fiber in the last mile, not much has changed in the last few years and unless you have fiber to your home, not much will change in the next 5 or more years. Face it folks, the Internet as a platform has stagnated. Its dead as a growth platform. Its like Microsoft windows. From about 1985 to 1995 it was a great platform and there was new software coming out continuously. When was the last time you got excited about a new piece of consumer software written for Windows ? Its a stagnant consumer platform. We switched to browsers for most of our PC activity. We are getting to the point where the browser on the net as a platform is becoming stagnant. ...

Link:  Blog Maverick.  Thanks to Stephen Hill.  --Dennis

Google to offer Internet portal for Sprint's WiMAX network

I've posted recently about the Clearwire and Sprint WiMAX partnership because I think it's a signal that the broadcasting and consumer electronics industries need to get ready for WiMAX-to-the-dashboard.  Jacqui Cheng gives us another signal with a story about Google coming to the party.  The story ends:

... Google's current collaboration with Sprint will provide a boost as Sprint and its WiMAX partner, Clearwire, try to raise the profile of WiMAX. The wireless broadband technology has had a hard time getting off the ground in the US, but Sprint plans to roll the high-speed wireless tech out in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. by the end of the year, and 17 more US cities by April of 2008. The company says that it hopes to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008.

Link:  Ars Technica.

Also see Cheng's 2008 WiMAX rollout scheduled for Chicago, Indy, Denver, and more.  Link:  Ars Technica.  --Dennis

Clearwire and Sprint partnership

I'm a customer of both Sprint (multimedia phone and PC wireless card) and Clearwire (WiMax-ish WISP for my home), so the news of this collaboration is very interesting.  Clearwire has also recently entered into marketing partnerships with DirecTV and EchoStar.  More importantly, I think, this accelerates the development of mobile WiMax which, with other advanced mobile IP technologies, will quickly bring IP to the dashboard.  Soon I won't have to use my notebook PC and Sprint EV-DO card to listen to NRK's Alltid Folkmusikk channel when I'm driving -- ja, youbetcha!  Here are two articles (thanks to Dave Ostrom at my university).  --Dennis

In Sprint Moves to Build WiMax Network, Kim Hart writes:

Sprint Nextel is taking a different path to high-speed wireless than its rivals: Instead of bidding billions of dollars on airwaves in a federal auction, Sprint is building a network that uses WiMax technology, a move that has attracted plenty of criticism.  ¶   Sprint yesterday mapped out more plans for its network by announcing a 20-year partnership with Clearwire, a three-year-old start-up that provides wireless Internet service and is headed by entrepreneur and early Nextel investor Craig O. McCaw. Both companies hope the partnership will help build the new network faster and cheaper.  ¶  WiMax, like the better-known WiFi technology, connects cellphones and laptops to the Internet at speeds comparable to cable modems. Proponents say WiMax signals cover larger areas and are less susceptible to interference than WiFi and can connect more devices at higher speeds than the networks operated by such Sprint competitors as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. ...

Link: Washington Post.

In Clearwire and Sprint: Racing Ahead, Tom Giles writes:

Shares of Clearwire, a provider of wireless Internet access, surged on news that it's pairing with Sprint Nextel to create a nationwide network designed to provide mobile Internet access at faster speeds than typically available now.  ¶  The fruit of their cooperation will be the first coast-to-coast network providing broadband using WiMAX, a technology related to Wi-Fi with a wide-reaching signal so that users need not keep close to a hotspot at home or in a coffee shop to stay connected (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/11/07, "Will Mobile WiMAX Crack Fortress Europe?"). The companies plan to market mobile WiMAX services under a common service brand.  ¶  Sprint Nextel ... and Clearwire ... had been planning separate WiMAX systems, but they say combining forces will let them build a network more quickly and cheaply. ...

Link:  BusinessWeek.

iSuppli survey: consumers want an Internet-connected TV

Steve O'Hear writes:

According to a survey carried out by iSuppli, nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers want their televisions to link to the Internet. This, it’s suggested, could path the way for an explosion in sales of network-enabled consumer electronics devices in the next few years. ...

Link:  last100.  --Dennis

Microsoft's Internet TV strategy

Mack D. Male  has a two part article exploring Microsoft's Internet TV strategy.  Link to part 1:  last100.  Link to part 2: last100.  --Dennis

Overview of Democracy Player Miro

Steve O'Hear has a nice article on Miro, formerly known as Democracy Player, from the Massachusetts-based Participatory Culture Foundation.  Link:  last100.  --Dennis

LiveStation from Skinkers

William Cooper writes:

LiveStation is new software platform that enables live television channels and radio stations to be broadcast efficiently over the internet.  ... [I]t is designed to provide live streaming, rather than video on demand...   ¶  LiveStation is being developed by a London company called Skinkers, based on technology from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England. ...  The peer-to-peer system provides the basis of the Skinkers Live Delivery Network, an enterprise-class platform designed for the efficient delivery of real-time data. LiveStation is one of the first applications to be built on this software infrastructure. ...

Link:  informitv.

Deborah McAdams has an interview with the CEO of Skinkers, Matteo Berlucchi, about LiveStation.  Link:  FierceIPTV.

Steve O'Hear has a review of LiveStation.  Link:  last100.  --Dennis

David Weinberger: Delaminate the bastards

David Weinberger writes:

I've posted a long-ish call for structurally separating the businesses that provide us with connectivity and those that provide us with services and content that uses that connectivity.  It's called "Delaminate Now!."  ¶  It's based on David Isenberg's Making Network Neutrality Sustainable, which argues that the only way to get an enforceable Network Neutrality policy is to restructure the industry itself.  I also highly recommend Susan Crawford's Moving Slowly in the Fast Lane.

Link:  Joho the Blog (or just go directly to the links above).  David's most recent book is Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder.  --Dennis