Why Bandwidth?

[nevstarwader]

This may be an old irrelevant question to many, but seeing as we are waiting for Iburst to supply the service we pay for (I am having to use my vodacom cell to connect), maybe someone can shed some light.

Ever since I was a schoolboy and throughout my electronics training, bandwidth was the capacity of a medium to deliver information. The amount of info that went through that medium was what we now call data. Analogous to water, bandwidth was the diameter of the pipe - it determined how fast water could flow though it. Data was the litres that poured out the end of the pipe and filled the dam.

Iburst - and it seems most ISPs - sell me bandwidth when they are actually talking about data. I cannot possibly buy bandwidth from Iburst - 1 Mbps is the fixed size of their pipe - i.e. their bandwidth (ignoring congestion). Bandwidth is measured in data per time (1Mbps) while data is imply data (2Gigabytes).

Can anyone explain?

 

[avert]

it's the fault of the very first advertising company that was tasked with selling internet in south africa. and its stuck ever since. I guess Bandwidth sounds more technical and more awesome then data.

 

[MadMailMan]

I want to by 3GB data. What have you got to sell me? Will it look good? Will it be emails or web pages? The problem is Joe Public is stupid and needs VERY simple ways of getting rid of his money and that is why ISPs sell him "bandwidth". What you say is perfectly correct, only grandma wont understand it.

 

[InTheCube]

I blame the consumer, especially those in the know (read myBB + Geek community), for not demanding better, and complaining more.

If you accept shyten for hard earned moola, these guys will just shovel more in your direction, and smile as they walk away richer. They don't care.

If you get *** service, or *** products, we need to complain, and demand better. Sitting around doing nothing, and hoping ain't gonna change squat.

 

[nevstarwader]

This consumer (me) has been asking various ISP management over the years this question and they dont really have a response. "Oh well, that's how it is" or some or dodge. Any self-respecting engineer/technician working at an ISP would have raised this point. Why haven't they corrected it? Ergo - No self-respecting techies working at the ISP. Maybe that's why Iburst continues to run into technical difficulties.

I feel a song coming on:
"Where have all the techies gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the techies gone?
Long time ago...."

......Dont worry if you don't recognise the words. I am giving away my vintage away here.

BTW - I saw an advert for a USA company selling 'bandwidth'. Did we import the corrupted terminology?

 

[Trixanno]

You shouldn't underestimate the influence RSA have on the rest of the world...the US might have adopted this from their RSA couterparts /jk