May 2015

Netflix accounts for one-third of Internet traffic at peak hours. Toss in YouTube, and that figure rises to roughly half of all bandwidth consumed. But even that's small potatoes compared with what's coming. In five years, 80 percent of the entire world's Internet consumption will be dominated by video. That number will be even higher in the United States, approaching 85 percent. That's according to the latest projections from Cisco, which publishes an annual study peering into the near future of the Web.

The newest report predicts that by 2019, the Internet will have become more or less a big video pipe. Part of the growth will come from adding new people to the Internet -- for the first time, over half the world's population will be digitally connected. But individual Internet users are also expected to consume more video over time, and at a higher quality, which will put tremendous new burdens on the world's Internet infrastructure. When you see the Internet as a huge distribution channel for video, it puts virtually everything that tech and communications companies are doing into perspective. Telecom firms like Verizon are racing to expand their cellular networks so that they can deliver video over LTE. Cable companies are fleshing out their public Wi-Fi hotspots so users can watch videos outside their homes. Content providers like HBO and CBS are putting their programming on the Internet so that customers don't have to be tethered to their television sets. Implicit in this idea is that mobile devices will be the primary way users will access all this video. And researchers agree on that point.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker unveiled her annual State of the Internet report. Among the findings was a slide highlighting a troubling trend for both Facebook and Twitter. “Average revenue per user” growth, or ARPU as the metric is called on Wall Street, has been steadily declining for both companies over the past year. In other words, Facebook and Twitter are adding new users, but revenue growth isn’t keeping up at the same rate.

[Commentary] I’m often asked what lessons can be gleaned in the United States from the experiences of other top-tier global broadband Internet leaders. My response always begins by pointing out that a significant set of indigenous factors in the US, South Korea, Japan, the UK, and France contribute to, or deter, progress in individual top-tier countries, regardless of what affirmative steps are taken. A number of localized characteristics favor broadband development independent of concerted policy actions.

For example, geography and demographics can support or deter broadband development tasks depending on the nation’s size, population density, per capita income, percentage of high-rise housing, and household size. Consequently, the context of broadband Internet ecosystem development in a particular country often is unique to that country’s physical, economic, political, cultural, and social environment. Attempting to generalize from even the countries with the best policies is unlikely to yield meaningful policy outcomes. My study, unlike others, is careful not to develop global inferences that are based on a specific top-tier global broadband Internet leader’s particular circumstances. That said, during my research, I also discovered that there may be ways to stimulate broadband demand on a national scale, and that these models may indeed hold promise if they were to be initiated in the United States.

Two key supporters of the House-passed National Security Agency reform bill are amplifying their calls for the Senate to pass the legislation. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said the USA Freedom Act "is the only bill" that can pass the Senate before the end of the weekend. "Passage of the USA FREEDOM Act remains the only viable legislative option that will bring real reform and ensure no lapse in intelligence authorities," the two said in a statement. "The House-passed bill is the only bill the Senate can pass and send to the President before Sunday night’s deadline."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants to extend those provisions, but was repeatedly blocked early Saturday morning, and a "clean" extension of the law appears unlikely. Sens Leahy, Goodlatte and other supports of the USA Freedom Act are using the current stalemate over how to move forward on the intelligence agency's program to redouble their efforts to pass for the reform legislation