I live in a large US metropolitan city. The current Internet provider choices provide reasonable speeds. I am able to watch 4k YouTube videos and stream Netflix. Sunday mornings, I use Hulu to check out the latest episode of SNL. It is convenient to fast forward to the funny skits (1). Skype has fairly good fidelity and online video game matches are responsive. I can Dropbox a 30 minute high definition video in about 10 minutes and the time it takes downloading attachments is an afterthought. But as a great philosopher once opined, “You don’t know what you have until you don’t.”
A relative of mine recently opened a bed and breakfast in the middle of a pine forest situated next to a lake. The closest town is a thirty minute drive once you reach the highway. This makes for great brochure photos, but is bad for Internet connectivity. Her only Internet option is satellite. Satellite providers have all of the features that one does not want when connecting to the Internet: it’s expensive, slow, and has high latency. The data cap is appalling, and weather conditions make it intermittent at best.
Nevertheless patrons come to expect connectivity regardless of the location. It is of the utmost importance to Instagram that fireside selfie photo immediately. Spotify is useful to add the proper ambiance in order to consume a morning meal of homemade world famous German potato pancakes. Some connectivity is better than nothing. But try playing Star Wars Battlefront with a 1,000 MS ping time. Darth Vader is going to best you before you can even draw your blaster (2). And the new episode of House of Cards that patrons want to watch in their suite, in 4k, is not going to happen.
Some conectivity is better than nothing. Something better is even more. Business will adapt to challenging conditions to expand revenue. Codecs will help increase performance to some degree, and Netflix is re-encoding all of its library content to deliver the highest bitrate at the lowest bandwidth. With the right codex My little Pony cartoons can stream at 1080p with the slowest of internet speeds; The Avengers, not so much. At some point though it is a law of diminishing returns.
Cambium’s PMP 450i at 900 MHz provides a solution. It has Low latency, good RF penetration, and is highly scalable. It has a rugged environment casing, and a secondary Ethernet port that can power a camera. From the wooded bed and breakfast, to the village in a remote mountaintop Cambium has the solution for connectivity needs.
(1) There are no funny skits.
(2) Han shot first.