Next year a large slice of the British public is going to
experience the next generation of the internet, courtesy of NTL
Broadband. The speed of the new connections - 20 megabits per second
(20Mbps) - is enough to stream high-definition TV (HDTV) straight from
the net to a PC or television, without even having to download.
Last week NTL Broadband demonstrated 'streaming' high-definition TV
over the new 20Mbps service. The BBC Proms came out crystal-clear in
the not-so new HDTV format, which offers pictures four times sharper
than ordinary digital TV. You could pick out expressions on the faces
of people far back in the audience.
Even better, the new connection was able to manage this without sturrering or lagging.
Search giants like Google are already predicting that 'video search' is going to be the next big thing.
And with the race on to bring ever faster net connections to home users
- people in Hong Kong can already get 100Mbps connections; in Hamburg
and Stuttgart they can get 50Mbps - it looks certain that within two or
three years, much of Britain's TV is going to be coming to us over the
net.
The nightly TV schedule could be a thing of the past. With new fast
connections, it could be possible to simply search for TV and films
that you like, Google-style, and start watching what you want
immediately.
On the Business web site there is even an article suggesting NTL may go straight to a 100Mbps service.
"Fibre can carry up to one gigabit," Keith Monserrat, NTL's director of policy said. "It
will be relatively straightforward for NTL to provide speeds of at
least 100 megabytes per second across its entire network. By contrast,
BT's planned 21st Century network will not be able to deliver speeds
above 10 megabytes."
Although NTL will not reveal the timing
of the launch of its 100-megabyte service, Monserrat said NTL customers
could expect to be offered the service "in the not too distant future".
NTL
hopes to establish a market lead over other UK telecoms operators.
Other UK internet service providers (ISPs) dispute the need for
broadband services much faster than eight megabytes. But according to
NTL, ISPs are rolling out 28 megabyte services in France and 20
megabytes services in The Netherlands.