Even with bandwidth costs falling, many Web site operators worry about the expense of providing bandwidth-hungry content. But there's no ad revenue for streaming yet. Suddenly it becomes cost-prohibitive for us to serve the entire nation streaming video. Relief Many content providers become victims of their own success, maintains Microsoft's Carpenter. If the content becomes extremely popular, then the content provider needs to work with its hosting provider to make provisions for additional network bandwidth and servers.
Costs can quickly soar.
Among the solutions Web site operators employ to accommodate all those new high-bandwidth users is multicasting technology. With bandwidth consumption minimized, Web sites can offer video, audio and software downloads simultaneously to hundreds or thousands of remote users quickly and easily. With multicast, we may make 20 connections to 20 different data centers, and then they serve maybe 2,000 people. The technology requires support from ISPs, router manufacturers and software developers, all of which are supporting the concept in greater, but not yet overwhelming, numbers. But I expect it will be used very widely in the years ahead.