Ten Stories that Defined Broadband in 2008

A round-up of this year's top broadband stories, and one heartfelt wish for the New Year

By Om Malik

With every tick of the clock, 2008 is taking its final steps toward 2009, when the year starts afresh. From a broadband perspective it has been an eventful year—one that was good, bad, and ugly. Here is a rundown of 10 stories that defined the sector in 2008:

1. Optical cable cuts bookmark the year

In 2008 we saw undersea optical cables cut on two separate occasions, resulting in limited Internet and voice access in countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In January two cables went out in the Mediterranean Sea, and then two more went on the blink in February. Toward the end of 2008, similar cable cuts near Malta led to wide-scale problems.

2. Peering troubles disrupt the Internet

Cogent Communications, a wholesale bandwidth provider, got into a fracas with two separate carriers—Telia and Sprint —and shut off its connections with them, which resulted in many of their customers losing access to the Internet. Regardless of whose fault it was, the brouhaha brought home the fact that the Internet is really a network where many parties agree to interconnect to each other and any one party can cause the whole thing to fall apart (or slow down).

3. The unwelcome rise of metered broadband

In the U.S., we started to see the asphyxiation of unlimited broadband. Limited by imagination and slowing growth prospects and with their video franchises threatened, newly independent Time Warner Cable and Comcast embraced the concept of metered broadband. Phone companies joined in, and now we are faced with a rather bleak broadband future in this country. Of course everyone is blaming P2P, Hulu, and the growing demand for online video. But once ISPs started to block P2P traffic , they soon found themselves in trouble with the FCC. We issued our own GigaOM white paper that looked at the facts and fiction of bandwidth caps.

4. Wireless broadband takes wings, thanks to the iPhone 3G

This summer, Apple released the 3G version of its popular iPhone, leading to a sharp increase in the demand for wireless Internet access. As predicted, it has tested the capabilities of AT&T's wireless network, while lifting demand for more capacity on mobile backhaul networks. AT&T had to buy Wayport, a Wi-Fi operator, to supplement its 3G networks as consumers turned to cheaper Wi-Fi for Internet access on their phones. Other wireless carriers are responding with their own devices and wireless data, turning it into a massive (and lucrative) business. Most notably, T-Mobile USA launched its much-awaited 3G network and a Google Phone to go along with it.