More Bandwidth Than You Can Use?

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At the same time, today's game consoles are hardly limited to gaming. Microsoft is adding Internet-based TV capability to its Xbox 360 Elite, and Sony (SNE) will likely follow suit with its PlayStation 3. Thus equipped, households with a gamer or two will likely eat into their available bandwidth faster than others.

Interactive TV, Again

Remember that old, discredited buzz phrase from the 1990s: "interactive TV." Well, get ready for a comeback. If American Idol doesn't prove that viewers will give more or less instant feedback to TV programs they like, nothing will. Viewers cast more than 600 million votes over the course of Idol's latest season, including 74 million during the finale. Sure, it's easy to vote by phone or wireless text message. But the upstream bandwidth—which users need to upload data to the Internet rather than sucking it down—will be there to allow votes from the comfort of a remote control.

"I've been around long enough not to fall for any of the hype around interactive TV," says Gary Schultz, president of Multimedia Research Group, in Silicon Valley. Having been exposed to TiVo (TIVO) and other digital video recorders for cable TV, Schultz says, consumers are accustomed to ordering television programs at the time and place of their choosing. That, in turn, will force advertisers to adapt—at long last—and learn to love the DVR by giving consumers a reason to not fast-forward through every commercial. "As you forward through the ads, you might see something that catches your eye and slow down to watch it. That's going to take more upstream capacity."

Forecast: New Applications

Bandwidth demand won't be limited to the TV and computer, either. There also will be a growing number of bandwidth-sipping devices around the house, which as yet aren't typically connected to the network. From heating and cooling systems to alarms and surveillance cameras, an increasing number of devices will be plugging into the network. Companies including AT&T (T) and iControl Networks are already building products geared toward monitoring the home and controlling lights and appliances remotely.

But Verizon's Wegleitner also sees an opportunity in enabling the ability to control what goes on in your house from a Web browser or wireless phone. "I don't think we'd want to be the one selling the service," he says. "But in the same way that you might want to turn on the lights or the air conditioner before you get home, you might also want to order a movie to be downloaded and waiting for you."

And there are always applications that no one has thought of yet. "Back when the first cable modems were demonstrated, the only demanding application we could think of was sending photos," says Comcast's Werner. "Now I'd say 80% of the commerce I do is online, and so is a lot of the music and information use." Indeed, much has happened in only the last three to five years to boost our thirst for bandwidth. Given another three years, it can't help but grow further.

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.