The Death of Asymmetric Internet Access?

Not that long ago, the average Internet user followed a simple pattern – request-response – to access the Web. Back then, the size of the requests were substantially less than that of each response. It was easier to manage.

The introduction of HTTP and the sophistication of modern Internet browsers brought a second evolution of Web access, introducing the concept of asymmetric broadband service. In this model, data speed and quantity differ by direction – it’s why broadband providers list different speeds for downloading versus uploading data.

The asymmetric model has persisted ever since, and today, we assume that this is the best way for consumers to access the Web and mobile applications. However, the model is no longer relevant. The introduction of a new range of Web and mobile activities, from the concepts of cloud backup and streaming content, to the complexities of massive multiplayer online (MMO) gaming environments and the “work anywhere” concept, has led us down a road where an asymmetric Internet access pattern is no longer valid and applicable.

Think about it. Who hasn’t had trouble uploading his gigantic photo or video archive to a new cloud storage account? Or, synchronizing his work laptop with a cloud service or network drive? Who hasn’t worried or complained about constant lags or jitters when trying to video conference a colleague or customer?

 Yes, video is still the king of bandwidth consumption, but it will soon have to compete for that title against a wide range of emerging Internet-enabled technologies. There’s the ever-increasing presence of commercial and consumer drone technology to consider, not to mention self-driving connected vehicles and the rise of connected sensors in residential, commercial and public spaces. All of these new devices will compete for bandwidth, which means we need to re-consider the value of relying on asymmetrical broadband connectivity moving forward.

How We Got Here

Part of the challenge for Internet service providers (ISPs) is that their customers are hardly technology geeks who truly understand the concept of asymmetric access. They hardly relate to the fact that picture and video, on any channel, consume substantially more space and bandwidth than normal Internet browsing, email or even VoIP-based calls. As consumers, we tend not to care about the dirty details – that is, at least, until we decide to transfer 1,000 ultra-high definition photographs from our local archive to a cloud backup solution and wonder why it will take a day or more.

And yet, as Internet consumption behaviours have evolved, asymmetrical Internet access has remained the standard. Yes, fibre has the potential to offer symmetrical access, and it is deployed that way in many places. Yes, 4G/LTE also has the ability to support symmetric access, and yes, 5G promises the ability to support low-latency uplink and more.

But, unless these technologies are wrapped into commercial propositions and actually brought to customers and made available, they won’t make a dent on the broader challenge. If operator Internet access propositions continue to rely on the asymmetric model, we can’t be surprised that the customers who spend their money with us are no longer appreciative of or impressed by the potential of all these dazzling new technology capabilities. Customers are promised high-speed Internet access, but instead receive variable speeds depending on how they use the Web. It’s no wonder why so many consumers are frustrated with their ISPs and are sick of false promises.

The Way Forward

As a consumer and a father, I notice plenty of differences between myself and my children as to the types of experiences they expect and enjoy. I grew up in the ‘70s, when our expectations for what is convenient and acceptable as a consumer were different. It's tough for me to explain to my kids why I still listen to vinyl records and prefer old-school analogue systems over the convenience of digital services. To them, I should just use Spotify to stream my favourite music from my smartphone to my home audio system.

It’s even harder to explain the non-intuitive complexities of Internet access when they ask why they can download a movie from iTunes in less than 10 minutes but uploading their photo library to the cloud takes significantly longer.

For these kids and for most non-technical people, the digital world should "just work." The Internet should be able to adjust to changing usage patterns without much friction. In order to do that, we need to look a lot more into how individual users consume the Internet, including the apps and devices they rely on, and then adjust resources and access accordingly in real time. In some cases, it would make sense to completely shed static configurations and instead experiment with how we deliver connectivity to consumers altogether.

Regardless of how convenient or easy the world appears to be to customers, networks need to become much cleverer to address changing expectations. It does not matter if the toolkits we deploy are fantastic to us. If we cannot apply these tools in a way that satisfies user demands, they are irrelevant.

In the world of telecoms, telephony and telco messaging are already headed down the road to extinction, but mobile data is and will continue to be very important to the world for a long time. To make the most of technology investments, operators and the industry as a whole needs to take a closer look at how we can increase customers’ contextual awareness of the digital world, while also delivering the services they want.

To address this challenge in the context of Internet connectivity, operators need to increase their business elasticity, or their ability to adjust to changes in their environment. This is defined by three dimensions. First, operators need to improve their ability to gain new insights, such as the broad evolution in Internet usage patterns. Second, operators require the flexibility to reconfigure their offerings quickly in response to new opportunities or threats. Third, operators need the ability to scale as needed, whether a new identified pattern means constant future growth or simply temporary growth in response to a short-term need.

For most operators, this means they need to completely re-think how they address needs of each individual customer, not the broad, general needs of all of their customers. The customer journey is more complex and individualised than ever, which means telco offerings and networks need to support dynamic behaviours and demands.

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