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South Dakota Ranks Lowest in Nation: Cost Per MBps
According to NetIndex.com, an internet research project based on profiling overall broadband performance, and cost in the world; South Dakota has the nations lowest cost per MBPS. Believe it or not, the seemingly high premium you’re paying for broadband internet is the lowest in the United States, coming in at just $2.94/MBps, significantly lower than the outrageous $14.54 Alaska residents are paying.
See for yourself: NetIndex.com
Watch how this figure evolves as providers turn up the speed utilizing DOCSIS 3.0 to open up more bandwidth to consumers.
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Online Storage
Recently the folks over at VPS.net have added CDN (Content Delivery Network) services to their list of product offerings. As I’ve mentioned before this a great thing for the consumer looking for a high performance to cost ratio. Without going into it too far, CDN’s move your content closer to users in an attempt to create a more enjoyable user experience. Unfortunately cloud storage can be an expensive feat if you plan on archiving material for long period of time.
Cloud Storage:
- Rackspace Cloud Files by Rackspace
- S3 (Simple Storage Solution) by Amazon Web Services
Note: I’m sure there here are others, however these are the names which I’m familiar with. Additionally if you know of any cloud or reliable storage solutions please recommend them in the comments below.
Why do I need online storage for my media?
In most cases your ‘broadband’ connections will not be sufficient to upload your content to users fast enough. This is because many ISPs provide asymmetrical internet connections, which basically means in terms of the internet you get far more download speed than you do upload speed. For example say I have a 15Mb download, while thats plenty fast for most applications, I’m only provided with a 1Mb upload. Because of this imbalance in connection speed we need to send our content to somewhere that has a faster connection for broader distribution.
Long term sustainability
Since storage is priced per GB, on a monthly basis, cost will increase over time in a linear fashion, creating an increase in cost as the size of your media library grows. The table below outlines a projected cost when having a 300mb recording from each service, assuming 4 services per month, at a rate of $0.15/GB, not including transfer costs.
