The internet is pounding us with information, but once we can input with the same speed and reliability as we accept output, we open up new doors to truly communicate. One-way digital interactions are an inadequate mechanism to train or engage — we simply sit and absorb. For two-way learning, training and sharing in a digital environment, we need upload speeds just as fast as downloads. With symmetrical speeds, we lay the foundation for an immersive future of digital give-and-take that we have yet to imagine.
We’re already exploring the possibilities.
Already we have seen ways that higher upload speeds facilitate greater two-way communication. People with the upload speeds for seamless videoconferences and presentations have a better chance to excel in the workplace. Some have made careers out of uploading and lifestreaming videos on social media. As more people gain access to the expanding economic opportunities of these digital environments, they not only bring secondary benefits to their families and communities but also join in supporting the innovation we have yet to ideate.
Telehealth has been making it easier to receive many healthcare services online, but not for the estimated 4 million residents across North Carolina without access to reliable broadband speeds, mostly in rural areas where healthcare is already limited. For every 10,000 residents in Western North Carolina, there are an average of 6.8 primary care physicians, eight nurse practitioners and fewer than two physician assistants. With the equipment to facilitate an immersive digital experience, people in these remote communities can access more healthcare options worldwide.
People learn best through hands-on experience and feedback, which is why soldiers, surgeons, astronauts and other high-stakes lines of work have trained using virtual reality (VR) applications for decades. VR training in these fields has shown nearly the same benefits as face-to-face training, as well as economic and time savings over traditional training techniques. Imagine being the new hire for a remote company where your training experience is in a completely immersive virtual setting that allows you to ask questions and interact with your training leaders and fellow trainees. Virtual reality and upload speeds can bring true learning across distances to anyone in the world.
The potential for so much more.
So far, fiber is the only broadband technology that offers symmetrical speeds. While most fiber internet providers today offer consumer plans with speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), or 1,000 megabits, Japanese researchers hold the world internet speed record by pushing those limits and transmitting 319 terabits per second (Tbps), or 319,000,000 megabits.
There’s so much room for growth and such unprecedented levels of technology at play that we can’t know everything that will come from our ability to explore it. When Thomas Edison created electricity, he never knew the myriad ways we would end up making use of it or the tools we would invent now run by its power. But just like electricity, better two-way communication should make our lives easier.
Risks we take by leaving anyone behind.
As we consider the $65 billion in infrastructure funds to build and subsidize universal broadband, we need to plan beyond today’s problems and think about future-proofing this investment for tomorrow. If we leave some communities without the capacity for symmetrical speeds, these areas risk losing touch with fast-paced digital opportunities that increasingly enable and innovate two-way engagement. Those with it will live in an entirely different world than those stuck in a place without the same ability to input and engage. Without a network to respond to that world, people will still be isolated. It’s a digital divide all over again.
I’m looking forward to a world of greater engagement. I feel like some of my kids got a little shortchanged without true communication as we shifted into a post-pandemic life. Both of them graduated during COVID-19, one with a doctorate and the other with their bachelor’s degree, and they spent so much time without that vital engagement among their peers and professors. Instead, they were simply drilled with information. They felt the disadvantage of one-way learning. I think limitless engagement is how we solve the digital divide — enabling a means of true engagement between anyone in the world for various applications, including those we have yet to innovate.
The concept of universal broadband enjoys bipartisan support, and if given the choice all things equal, most people would choose faster upload and download speeds. But delivering symmetrical speeds requires fiber to the home (FTTH), and those buildouts in rural areas are very expensive. For some communities where only DSL or coaxial cable providers step in to install networks, getting connected at an affordable price today might seem like a better immediate option. Leaders in each state will have to decide the best way forward for their communities, but they should also consider the implications of using this once-in-a-lifetime funding opportunity for a slower technology as we continue to explore the limits of fiber and symmetrical speeds.
Equal access to the potential of upload speeds as people explore this world of engagement will bring greater economic benefits for all of society. With equal upload speeds, we open the door to new modes of digital engagement, spurring innovation and economic advances we have yet to understand and an era of enlightenment for deeper communication. Imagine what an immersive digital experience could be for you, and keep your eyes open to that potential because, with symmetrical speeds, we will get there.
