Domestic Broadband Must Evolve

Home Internet connections are based on a technology called ADSL. Put simply, it's biased in favour of fast downloads and slow uploads. This makes sense, as typical domestic web users are consuming content - web pages, video and music - rather than producing and publishing content.

Recently, the methods of handling files and information have evolved, and it's now convenient to have files and documents synced across many devices (computer, smart phone and slate/iPad) using services like Dropbox. This syncing all happens over the Internet, and results in a far greater flow of uploads than we've seen before.

My iPad keeps track of downloads and uploads, and it's interesting to note that the figures for both are similar.




The growth of syncing services suggests that domestic broadband providers may need to offer synchronous DSL, alongside ADSL, which supports downloading and uploading at the same speed. The system could even switch intelligently between the two types of service, although such a flexible system would come at a premium cost.