Is The Internet Up to the Task?

One of the overlooked benefits to cinemas is that the internet does have capacity limits and it may be reaching those limits now!

Data use is up 27% amid social distancing and there is growing concern from the ISPs that the 'broadband pipe' and infrastructure is reaching full capacity. U.S. homes usage of the internet rose to 6.3 gigabytes or 41.4% in January alone.

Is this going to be the 'new' normal as more and more people stay at home for remote office work and virtual schooling instead of going to coffee houses, bars, restaurants, and other social events, opting for streaming hi-def and 4k video instead.

Netflix, the premier user of the web-pipe, expects streaming usage to be up 61% during February. While Facebook doubled its server capacity over the last two months to power its messaging applications as users placed more voice and video calls on its platform.

There is now widespread concern by Regulators in the U.S. and Europe that social distancing will "break" the internet. The European Commission on Internal Market and Services has already requested that Netflix stream its content in standard vs. 4k HD format. Netflix did agree to reduce its streaming bitrate (for the time being) lowering its usage by 25%.

"This is going to be an enormous stress test for our communications networks," stated Blair Levin of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The FCC gave Verizon, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular access to the 600 Megahertz spectrum through April, providing extra wireless capacity for data connections.

There is heavy reliance that the ISPs will be up to the task in providing for the huge increase in usage?  CMG doesn't think it is.

I'm sure you've already experienced slower logins, longer data retrieval times, reduced availability of 4K/Ultra HD video streams, and more frequent 'come back later' notifications - all to the benefit of movie theaters. It is becoming very apparent that going to the cinema is really the only way to view a film in high def with great sound.

This unexpected problem of internet capability and capacity is only going to get worse and as it does it provides opportunity for movie theaters.

Note: I had several infographics for this post but Google couldn't connect blogspot to my PC - requested I 'come back later' - it's already started.

Just saying,
Jim Lavorato