Upload Broadband Speeds Becoming New Battleground

Bernie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:28:00 -0400

With all the talk of increasing broadband speeds, we sometimes fail to mention that the focus tends to be on the download side. But in a web 2.0 world where the uploading of multimedia content is all the rage, upload speeds are becoming an important competitive weapon. Verizon FiOS does a good job of differentiating their upload speeds from their competition. Comcast is taking notice and has announced new upload speeds for select broadband tiers. In their statement Comcast says they will “… nearly triple the upload speed of its 6 Mbps / 384 Kbps Performance tier to 6 Mbps / 1 Mbps and more than double the upload speed of its 8 Mbps / 768 Kbps Performance Plus tier to 8 Mbps / 2 Mbps.” Expect to see more emphasis in upload speed upgrades. Customers who are satisfied with fast download speeds can quickly become frustrated when they join the world of user generated content upload and sharing. Broadband competitors will increasingly try to seize on that frustration by offering and marketing faster upload speeds.