Best quote in a while

“The internet was not set up with a view to distributing video. We have been improving our capacity, but the bandwidth we have is not infinite,” said Mary Turner, chief executive of Tiscali UK. “If the iPlayer really takes off, consumers accessing the internet will get very slow service and will call their ISPs to complain.”

Incredible, isn't it?

In Japan, they've got 100MB connections over fiber, and Mary wants us to think that the internet wasn't set up for video ... Next, she'll be convincing us that the internet is just a series of tubes.

The complaint/comment stems from concerns raised by companies such as Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse that the BBC's new iPlayer, "which allows viewers to watch TV shows over
the internet, will put too much strain on their networks if it becomes
popular among a mass audience." FT article is here.

The FT continues:

The Leading UK internet service providers are warning they may have to restrict customers’ access to the BBC’s new iPlayer service unless the corporation contributes to the cost of streaming videos over the internet.

The problem is that they have not kept their promises to deliver high speed networks and had under-delivered compared to consumer demand.

The same is true in the US, where Joost's business is certainly feeling the strain of the lack of high-speed access in the States.

The fundamental problem that Joost faces is the fact that the broadband available to North American households simply isn’t fast enough for them to provide image quality comparable to digital cable or satellite, much less high-definition video.

Of course, that quote does nothing to fix the fact that Joost is a sh*t product with mostly crap content, but that's another story ...


Technorati Tags: broadband, bbc, joost, dinosaurs