Your Telecommunications Infrastructure

Since webre in a grateful mood, I thought Ibd take the opportunity to appreciate what the telecommunications infrastructure has done for global business.B Most of the time we take it for granted.

Our small office gets its internet service from one of the cable providers.B We get a lot of bandwidth for not a lot of money.B Now, there are some drawbacks with inexpensive cable bandwidth, but it serves our purposes just fine.

For all of us that do business in bthe Cloudb (which is just about everyone with a bank account), we can bpat ourselves on the backb for helping to drive the demand for the infrastructure that supports our ability to make use of these services cost-effectively.B In some cases, theybre even free.B Although, any business person knows bfreeb isnbt really free.

You might give yourself another bpat on the backb if you use a smart phone or tablet computer.B These devices are creating dramatic surges in traffic that can only be addressed with increased network infrastructure.B I get two bpatsb for this one since I have a smart phone and a tablet computer.

And, you can give yourself a big hug if youbre using video conferencing regularly.B Not only is this good for the environment b it is a HUGE consumer of bandwidth.B A video conference broadcast in high definition will require the availability of many megabytes of bandwidth to create a good experience for the users.

This demand for more bandwidth is also good for the economy.B Companies that are using these services are expected to spend more developing and maintaining the technology.B This generates jobs across all industries.

But, telecommunications companies are expected to spend $300 billion on network infrastructure improvement in the next few years to meet demand.B What are the primary drivers?

• Global internet traffic will quadruple
• Mobile broadband traffic will be 35 times the current levels
• Spending on wireless and wired network infrastructure will grow by $296 billion
• Global growth in telecom spending will be led by the Middle East/Africa
• US IT-based cloud computingB will be the fastest growing category

Itbs difficult to imagine life without the internet and high speed broadband.B Webve come a long way in the last 15 years.B As big bandwidth becomes more cost-effective and readily available, it gets easier and easier for businesses to make the decision to embrace bthe Cloudb for virtually all computing.B What will we be focusing on 15 years from now?B Time will tell!