by Dylan Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source
In Canada there is still a debate going on with the CRTC, internet service providers and the internet consumers. In one our previous posts we suggested that internet usage fees will increase due to the pushback from ISP’s and lack of a CRTC decision to protect consumers. Enter – Skype and Facebook to add to this debate.
The addition of Skype to Facebook to enable video calling from both mobile and terminal usage may inadvertently cause consumers excess stress. Although video is a cool feature, it is very data intensive and consumes excessive bandwidth. Novice users of Facebook such as parents or grandparents that keep in touch with children or grandchildren may be hit with overage fees with their current internet providers. The video portion usage of Skype will definitely increase bandwidth not only for the network but for the ISP’s providing internet usage packages to customers.
With our current ISP we are capped to certain limitations based on the package we subscribe to. If you consume more data than allotted then you pay an overage charge. Along with streaming, downloading of movies and now video Skype consumers may be left holding the bag as ISP’s continue to charge for data usage. Most internet users fall within reasonable usage standards and do not exceed their allotted packages but the inclusion of video chatting will allow providers to charge unnecessarily.
If widespread usage of video calling propagates through Facebook providers will then see increased bandwidth usage and raise internet usage fees. This will fuel the CRTC internet based billing debate again. This new video usage will perpetuate to mobile and the same criteria for increasing your wireless bills will also apply. For mobile, being more expensive than home usage you also reach your data cap quicker, consequently increasing your monthly mobile bill.
The collaboration and sharing platform from Google – Google plus + will also feed more into this debate as sharing within their hangout room, circles, and other video sharing capabilities will add to bandwidth usage even more so. These new social enterprise software social vendors will force bandwidth consumption to increase. This leads ISPs to provide additional services and forces them to upgrade their hardware and networks, increased hardware and software requirements to drive the new applications from the consumer side, more expensive hardware for mobile devices and extra security. Consequently, this means higher prices for all as social media software vendors partner and merge.
As technology moves forward and it becomes easier to consume these products and services, the tipping point of the hardware and data usage will become constraint as data prices may limit how you consume this technology. Ironically, making things simpler seems to be making it more stressful by increasing all round usage rates from home and mobile.
Eval-Source is consulting firm that provides enterprise software selection and strategic consulting services for organizations to achieve success in their IT initiatives. We are the source for your technology solutions. Visit Eval-Source’s blog at www.eval-source.com/blog or its website at www.eval-source.com or on Twitter @eval_source.