Media in the New Millennium

posted by Doyle

In case you missed it, more and more of us are relying on the Internet and mobile devices for information and communication (yes, I’m being sarcastic). A couple of recent events have me a little spooked, however.

iPhone users were unable to use their phones during this year’s South by Southwest due simply to too many users and too little capacity from AT&T. More recently, Michael Jackson’s death nearly broke the tubes we’ve all come to rely on. Google even thought they were under attack at one point.

Should we be concerned? I think so.

Many of us have come to rely on these devices for everything from basic communication to news and information. My iPhone is my alarm clock, primary telephone, best way to reach my kids (IM), newspaper and, in some cases, my television. But there are 10 million iPhones in use today, and there were zero just more than two years ago. Even thought that’s not 10 million new phones, I certainly use far more data on my iPhone than any device I’ve had in the past. The infrastructure is straining to keep up. And if a geek fest in Austin and a dead celebrity can tax the system to the point of nearly breaking, what will happen during the next 9/11 kind of event?

The problem is one of two-way communication. No matter how many people tune their televisions or radios to a given station, it doesn’t change the signal requirements — it’s the same whether one person or 100 million people are tuned in. Internet connections and cellular networks, however, are two way, so every additional call, stream, etc., requires bandwidth to serve it.

Clearly, it would be economically unfeasible to build and operate a network that can handle every possible connection at all times. Nevertheless, as more of us turn to the Internet and our mobile devices to both get information, then pass it along, how long before we break the Internet?

Do we need some kind of emergency broadcast system for the new broadcast systems we now all rely upon?

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