Time Warner says customers don’t want or need super fast gigabit Internet

speedlimit

You don’t want the super fast Internet speeds that services like Google Fiber can provide. Nope. You don’t really need that sort of thing. Only business customers do, for their business applications in their businesses. At least, that’s what Time Warner Cable thinks anyway.

Chief technology officer of Time Warner Cable, Irene Esteves, recently said at a conference in San Francisco that they “just don’t see the need of delivering that to consumers.” She said that while Time Warner actually has gigabit connections just like Google Fiber available in some markets, they only offer it to business customers. ‘Cause apparently, only business customers would need that kind of bandwidth.

Experts, on the other hand, believe that this reluctance has actually more to do with protecting their high margin broadband services. According to Craig Moffet of Bernstein Research, companies like Time Warner’s profits with their existing services is around 97 percent. Let’s repeat that for some comic effect: 97 percent profit.

While Esteves may think that there currently isn’t a need for such high bandwidth in the consumer space just yet, people with access to it in Kansas City are making a very compelling argument. High definition streaming of media, gaming, and even in applications in home health care are being developed.

Do you think we all need gigabit connections at home? I do. I’m gonna need it for this thing.

Note: What is with that speed limit in the image? Is that even possible?

[via Wired, image via Peter Dutton]

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