Is Bandwidth The New Oil?

Does America face another addiction with limited resources?

"Bandwidth is kind of like a drug," says Dana Waldman (CEO Voyant International). "The more you get, the more you want"

The number of devices connected to the Net is expected to grow exponentially with the "Internet of Things". If you include the growth in video related devices/application (and include the high definition capability) we could be facing another commodity crisis.

Tech Radar asks the question What If Bandwidth Was The New Oil?

While our oil habit continues to cost us dear, we're busily establishing another addiction. This time, it's bandwidth. The combined cost of broadband, home phones, cable or satellite TV and mobile phones can easily outstrip our energy bills, and our connected lifestyle is making these services essential. Is history repeating itself?

Will our internet addiction become as costly and as dangerous as our addiction to oil?

The solution

BitTorrent....The Internet's Darling Becomes A Dud

Representing about half the world’s Internet traffic by some measures, The Street.com called it the next gigantic IPO.

CNN called it the The Next Big IPO.

Much of their popularity is due to its ability to break the download bottleneck.

However when Comcast, a service provider, decided to put a "hold" on their Internet traffic, their downfall began.

BitTorrent Sacks Half Its Staff

As an open-source technology protocol, the file-sharing system BitTorrent is going strong, representing about half the world’s Internet traffic by some measures. But the San Francisco company, BitTorrent, is showing signs of serious trouble while it tries to commercialize the technology.

The company, with its remaining 20 employees, will focus on BitTorrent DNA, a content delivery network that helps media and video game companies distribute their products cheaply over the Internet.

Om Malik was spot on with this quote "While Web 2.0 companies may get acquired by Google (or Yahoo), specialized software start-ups with products that enhance hardware will find buyers more often. Expect this trend to continue, and in fact gain momentum"


So is the market in need of more bandwidth, or just bandwidth efficiency?

Comcast To Slow Web Traffic And Redfines "Unlimited" Bandwidth

"Penalty goes to IP address number X, 10 minutes for high bandwidthing"

From Bloomberg Comcast to Slow Some Web Traffic for Up to 20 Minutes

Comcast Corp. plans to slow Internet service to its heaviest users during periods of congestion, after regulators ordered the company to devise a new method for managing its Web traffic.

The top Internet speeds for targeted customers will be reduced for periods lasting 10 minutes to 20 minutes, keeping service to other users flowing.

See what speeds your ISP is really giving you (as opposed to what they advertise).

Do a SpeedTest.

It's free and takes less than a minute (no registration req'd) and will give your download and upload speeds. Find the closest server to your location and give it a test.

My closest test server is less than 50 miles away and this morning my download speed was 2.6 Mbps and 854 kbps upload. That's a far cry from the 6 Mbps Comcast advertises.

CTO Of Nortel Discusses Upcoming Bandwidth Boom

The Financial Times has a piece on the upcoming bandwidth boom. The author is John Roese is chief technology officer at Nortel.

Some interesting points:

At the heart of the internet are fat "pipes" - the fibre-optic equivalents of the LA Freeway - which can carry huge amounts of "traffic" in the form of voice, data, video and any combination thereof. The myriad on and off-ramps - connections that telecom service providers have hooked up to it - are not quite so fat or quite so fast.

Downloading a DVD on demand takes the equivalent bandwidth of 16m web page downloads, 400,000 e-mails, or nearly 2,000 iTunes songs (the size of web, music and e-mail files varies greatly, but these are realistic averages). And one movie on a dual-layer Blu-ray disk consumes the staggering equivalent of 100m web page downloads, 2.5m e-mails, and more than 12,000 iTunes songs.

The new services are gobbling up huge amounts of bandwidth, to the point where we have virtually eliminated the "bandwidth glut" of unused capacity that was built up during the late 1990s dotcom boom. We are, in fact, speeding towards a "bandwidth crisis".

On top of that, we are fast approaching a state of hyperconnectivity, where the number of devices, machines, and applications connected to the network will far exceed the number of people connected to it.

we need to expand the freeway but without the year-long roadworks that cause endless frustration. I would advocate doing this with advanced optical technology that essentially allows vehicles to be stacked on top of each other. This enables up to 10 times as much information to be carried in each lane of traffic without physically widening the road.

Do we need a boom in bandwidth or just bandwidth efficiency?

Ponderings about bandwidth.

What Does This Do To The Value Of YouTube?

How does this affect Internet advertising, and the value of YouTube?

Companies across the U.S. are starting to prevent their employees from accessing Internet-video services (YouTube) at work.

Now, online video has become an increasing irritation. Worker productivity is being jeopardized as short, often low-quality video clips popularized by YouTube are being joined by better-quality video services with long-form content.

(here's the kicker)

According to a study released last month by Nielsen Online, an Internet tracking service owned by Nielsen Co., the heaviest consumption of Internet video is during weekday lunch hours from noon to 2 p.m., when most people are at work.

Isn't that the equivalent of turning off TV and ads during prime time?

Bandwidth capacity relief for corporate networks?

Online video also is taxing already strained corporate networks. It poses a particular problem for smaller companies, which have limited bandwidth capacity to accommodate bulky video files. Online video files on average are about seven times as large as audio files, and 100 times as large as e-mail

The Next Generation Internet Holding Company

Our goal is finding major transformations and disruptive technologies which lead us to the next great investment.

Last year Visionary Innovations discovered a company that developed a revolutionary way to use radio frequency for medical procedures (surgeries)....disruptive technology for multi-billion dollar markets.

Based on our success with Intuitive Surgical and their revolutionary technology, we saw this same potential with this medical technology.

CSMG Technologies (OTC:BB CTUM) and their Live Tissue Connect, have a revolutionary device and patented methodology that allow surgeons to use radio frequency as a faster (under one minute), tighter, virtually bloodless, smokeless (sterile OR) wound seal that doesn’t burn or kill tissue, virtually leaving no scar in 60 days.

This disruptive technology is revolutionizing surgery because it eliminates the need for sutures, staples, glues and sealants.

Live Tissue Connect uses patented radio wave technology to bond and reconnect living soft biological tissue.

We published our report on this scar-less surgery last summer and called it the Next Intuitive Surgical

Wall Street is now starting to recognize this enormous opportunity for this microcap company.

Always on the lookout for disruptive technologies and the next great investment, we think found another.

We Found A Unique Opportunity


Very rarely, if ever, do we find a way to invest in breakthrough state-of-the-art technology, along side with some of the smartest investors in Silicon Valley, at a fraction of the cost, in a publicly traded vehicle, run by execs with billion dollar track records AND on the verge of generating revenues for various new and existing multi-billion dollar markets.



Pondering Primate readers are familiar with some "daily disruptions" I have discussed and how they will create multi-billion dollar opportunities.

Some of the biggest disruptions and opportunities include:

1. Offering Internet Access To Millions With Aviation Broadband

What company will offer "true broadband" to millions of new Internet users? Not only a broadband Internet provider, but a "true broadband" content deliverer too.

2. Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic

Could there be a bigger Dot-Com IPO than BitTorrent?

3. WAN Optimization Software In Big Demand

Companies want to fully utilize their broadband connection. There is a huge demand for network intelligence "middleware" or WAN optimization software. A WAN acceleration space disruptor? Software than sends data cross-country and gets speeds up to 200 Mbps.

4. The Next Big Thing..Video On The Internet

One word...YouTube. Who can provide a high fidelity solution for YouTube?

5. The Boom For Bandwidth Efficiency

"MiddleWare" that allows the Internet to fill up the pipes. The bigger the pipes, the more it helps..especially on long pipes.

6. Bandwidth, What Is It Good For, Absolutely Everything

Quoting Om Malik "While Web 2.0 companies may get acquired by Google (or Yahoo), specialized software start-ups with products that enhance hardware will find buyers more often. Expect this trend to continue, and in fact gain momentum"

The ability to send/receive/stream high def data, without changing the network, is becoming of great value to the hardware companies, video sites, e-commerce sites and service providers. This is a multi-billion dollar opportunity.

Visionary Innovations found a company run by seasoned Silicon Valley executives, with a portfolio of disruptive technology, hidden from Wall Street, that provide solutions for all of these problems.

Technology developed by U.S. Government and top VCs unlocks the “Next Generation of the Net”



We think we found The Next Generation Internet Holding Company (research report)

Let us know your thoughts.

Comcast Initiates Coverage Of BitTorrent, And Their IPO, With A "Hold"

Comcast is essentially initiating coverage of the BitTorrent IPO with a "hold" rating.

Will more ISPs put a hold on BitTorrent traffic?

Is it false advertising if your ISP advertises x speed, but only delivers y?

Besides BitTorrent, what other methods allow faster Internet downloads?

The Street.com discusses BitTorrent as the next gigantic tech IPO.

CNN calls peer-to-peer file sharing service BitTorrent the Next Big IPO

Much of BitTorrent's popularity is due to its ability to break the download bottleneck.

"Rather than load a file from a single server to any and all PCs that want it, BitTorrent's software divides up a file so that users essentially download it from each other. Not only is BitTorrent faster and less taxing on bandwidth resources, it's also cheaper than conventional downloading".

I wonder, could BitTorrent's future, and IPO, already be in jeopardy?

TorrentFreak discovers Comcast throttling BitTorrent traffic.

"Over the past weeks more and more Comcast users started to notice that their BitTorrent transfers were cut off. Most users report a significant decrease in download speeds, and even worse, they are unable to seed their downloads."

"ISPs have been throttling BitTorrent traffic for almost two years now. Most ISPs simply limit the available bandwidth for BitTorrent traffic, but Comcast takes it one step further, and prevents their customers from seeding."

Here's an interesting take from the ISPs.

"One of the ISPs that joined our discussions said: “The fact is, P2P is (from my point of view) a plague - a cancer, that will consume all the bandwidth that I can provide. It’s an insatiable appetite.”, and another one stated: “P2P applications can cripple a network, they’re like leaches."

"Just because you pay 49.99 for a 1.5-3.0mbps connection doesn’t mean your entitled to use whatever protocols you wish on your ISP’s network without them provisioning it to make the network experience good for all users involved.”

Are we looking for more bandwidth, or just bandwidth efficiency?

Click here for your Internet speed.

Software...Dancing On The Hardware?

There is a dominant theme in the technology space.

Software that does the "heavy lifting" for hardware, is in great demand.

Om Malik has been spot-on with his call on hardware guys buying software companies.

"Bottomline: While Web 2.0 companies may get acquired by Google (or Yahoo), specialized software start-ups with products that enhance hardware will find buyers more often. Expect this trend to continue, and in fact gain momentum."

Hewlett Packard recently acquired Opsware, a datacenter automation software company for $1.6B. "Opsware unlocks the promise of technology by accelerating IT to zero latency".

Is a zero latency Internet possible?

Are there software companies that can do this?

BMC bought RealOps , a developer of software for automating IT processes, ranging from applying software patches to provisioning servers.

VMware, which sells software that makes servers more efficient, went public Tuesday and is now the 5th largest publicly traded software company. Only Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Adobe are larger. VMware dominates the virtualization market. Their software creates multiple "virtual" servers within a physical server.

The next day Citrix Systems acquired virtualization software player XenSource for $500m.
" The deal will combine the California start-up's open-source virtualization technology with Citrix's extensive reach in computer networking."

What space is next for software to do the heavy lifting?

Price wars are kicking in for the content delivery network (CDN) players (Akamai, Limelight Networks etc) at the same time the explosion of Internet video continues. Software that can enhance content delivery network (CDN) hardware will be sought after to maintain an edge on competitors and increase profit margins.

Software companies that can resolve the upcoming Internet video boom are ripe for the picking.

Will The Infrastructure Allow The Next Big Thing...Video Internet

From WSJ Pessimists Say File Swapping Is Creating Traffic Jam

Researchers have long warned that rapid increases in Internet usage could strain the capacity of the data lines and gear that make up the network, severely slowing traffic and even knocking out service.

Prompting the latest concerns is the rapid growth of bandwidth-hungry applications like online video, file-sharing programs and Internet telephone service. Transmitting a minute of video can require 10 times the bandwidth of audio -- or more, depending on the quality. Already, peer-to-peer video swapping -- most of it illegal -- is estimated to represent in the range of more than one-third of all Internet traffic this year.


U.S. Internet video sites alone transmit more data per month than was carried over the entire U.S. Internet backbone monthly in 2000, according to network gear maker Cisco Systems Inc.

"One of the key possibilities for 2007 is that the Internet could be approaching its capacity," analysts at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu wrote in a January report

Robert Metcalfe, a venture capitalist at Polaris Venture Partners who helped build the early Internet as an engineer, thinks online-video traffic could cause slowdowns in Internet service for consumers, but that could lead them to use online video less, resulting in a sort of equilibrium.
"I've been talking about the next big Internet thing, 'the video Internet,' for years now,"

iPlayer Threatens The Internet

Is this the first specific incident where a video application could strain the Internet?

Some of the largest broadband providers in the UK are threatening to "pull the plug" from the BBC's new iPlayer unless the corporation contributes to the cost of streaming its videos over the internet.

The likes of Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse are all growing concerned that the impact of hundreds of thousands of consumers watching BBC programmes on its iPlayer – which allows viewers to watch shows over the internet – will place an intolerable strain on their networks.

As more consumers access and post video content on the internet – using sites such as YouTube – the ability of ISPs to cope with the amount of data being sent across their networks is coming under increasing strain, even without TV broadcasters moving on to the web. Analysts believe that ISPs will be forced to place stringent caps on consumers' internet use and raise prices to curb usage.

Do we need more bandwidth, or do we need more bandwidth efficiency?

The Boom For Bandwidth...Or The Boom For Bandwidth Efficiency?

BusinessWeek Mag has a great story Telecom: Back From The Dead

Some of the highlights.

-Today, fully one-third of all Internet traffic comes from Web videos.


-This year broadband adoption among U.S. adults is expected to cross the important threshold of 50%.

-the glut in broadband communications capacity is all but gone

-Thanks to bandwidth-hungry services such as YouTube, global Internet traffic from 2003 to 2006 grew at a compounded annual rate of 75% a year, according to TeleGeography. "When you compound those numbers, I don't care how much inventory you have, it's going to disappear off the shelf," says Level 3 CEO Crowe.

-A dollar spent on telecom infrastructure produces an outsize impact on the U.S. economy as a whole.

-That(Apple's iPhone), in turn, could create ever more demand for servers and routers, video services, and upgraded wireless networks.

-Verizon says it will steal a page from YouTube and allow TV customers to create their own personalized video channels

-While telecom revenues are now 19% higher than they were in 2000, that money supports just 1.1 million workers, down nearly 30% from boom-era levels.

-For the first time, this year the growth rate for new wireless subscribers in the U.S. is expected to decline.

-Back in 2004, Cisco's John Chambers recalls, critics laughed when Cisco rolled out an audacious new router, the CRS-1, capable of transmitting the entire contents of the Library of Congress in a few seconds. Analysts predicted only a handful would sell. This year, thanks to the video bandwidth hogs, sales of the CRS-1 are expected to hit $1 billion, more than double the figure for 2006.

What the article doesn't address is the efficiency of the network. There's lot of available bandwidth, that is not being utilized.

Things to ponder.

What happens when the bandwidth "pipe" is really opened and when sending/receiving any size of data, from any location, are no longer a factor?

What new multi-billion dollar companies are created? How much more efficient does our economy become?

With the proliferation of HDTV, IPTV, VoIP, SoIP, IPv6, YouTube etc how will, or could, this bandwidth demand be resolved?

Over a standard 100Mbps internet connection, TCP typically utilizes less that 3% of the available bandwidth. Downloading over HTTP, a 10 Gigabyte file over a 100Mbps connection from Asia to the United States would require over 18 hours to receive the file.

There's a software solution, that works over any IP network, utilizes up to 96% of the available bandwidth, performs 10-200 times faster, and does this under 20 minutes.

As Todd Dagres from Spark Capital said "Two kinds of IPs (Internet Protocol and Intellectual Property) are creating the biggest opportunity we've seen in a long time, probably since the Internet, in terms of new companies being formed and value being created"

Do you know what technologies, applications, and companies will play a key role?

Bandwidth....What Is It Good For, Absolutely Everything

Can we ever have too much bandwidth?

BusinessWeek has a neat story called More Bandwidth Than You Can Use/

The race to provide even bigger ones (data pipes) is intensifying among telecom and cable TV companies, as well as wireless network operators.

Some highlights:

Much as richer Web site graphics and music downloads idled millions of dial-up modems, the smart money is betting that future online video offerings—from high-definition TV and future iterations of YouTube-type video-sharing sites to sophisticated online gaming and video phone calls—will turn your average U.S. home into a 50Mbps bandwidth hog within three years.

-two or three people watching HDTV shows, playing music from the Internet, playing online games—the bandwidth demands are going to be gigantic

-Microsoft is adding Internet-based TV capability to its Xbox 360 Elite, and Sony will likely follow suit with its PlayStation 3. Thus equipped, households with a gamer or two will likely eat into their available bandwidth faster than others

Re: Interactive TV American Idol voting--Sure, it's easy to vote by phone or wireless text message. But the upstream bandwidth—which users need to upload data to the Internet rather than sucking it down—will be there to allow votes from the comfort of a remote control.

Re: Tivo/DVR users:--As you forward through the ads, you might see something that catches your eye and slow down to watch it. That's going to take more upstream capacity

There also will be a growing number of bandwidth-sipping devices around the house, which as yet aren't typically connected to the network. From heating and cooling systems to alarms and surveillance cameras, an increasing number of devices will be plugging into the network.

A couple I would like to include.

What about mobile phones and physical objects? Mobile phones will soon be tapping into the broadband connection at home. Physical objects with RFID tags and barcodes will soon be Internet accessable.