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Bandwidth caps might not affect many users now, but with services like Netflix streaming and Hulu Plus just gaining momentum, research firm iSuppli warns that carrier plans to set limits on the amount of bandwidth consumers use could pose a threat to the emerging Internet TV segment. William Kidd, director and principal analyst for financial services at iSuppli, writes that “caps will only become relevant if users viewed low-quality streaming media — say, a 200-kbps stream — on a wireless device for three hours, or if a standard-definition TV signal on a wired network was streamed for approximately 25 hours.” Until now, Internet TV has primarily been held back by bandwidth available to end users. As Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM has long argued, consumers need fat pipes to be able to watch high-quality video over the Internet. That need has only increased as Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, broadband set-top boxes and other devices have made it possible to watch IP video content in the living room. But to do so, HDTVs require around 5 to 8 Mbps for crisp HD-quality video to fill those flat panel TV screens.
