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Yup. That’s right, sixty percent (60%). I was informed by a reliable source that almost 60% of the internet bandwidth consumed in the Philippines are coming from peer-to-peer and torrents.
I was aghast when I heard that. I know huge volumes of bandwidth are being used for such services like downloading torrents (e.g. Pirate Bay, Mini Nova, Torrent Spy) and music from P2P services like Kazaa and LimeWire but I did not imagine it could be that huge. And that does not include regular site downloads (not sure if video sharing sites like YouTube are included but I guess not).
Still, the figure simply tells us that a lot of people are downloading tons of media using their broadband connection. To better visualize that number, let’s plug some specific numbers and do a little extrapolation.
In an earlier report, PLDT claimed that they have a total o 422,000 broadband subscribers by the 2nd half of 2007. That includes 210,000 Smart Bro subscribers and about 200,000 PLDT myDSL subscribers. We will exclude the 300,000 dial-up subscriber using PLDT Vibe.
I then pulled out my monthly NetMeter stats which logs my daily/monthly bandwidth usage per workstation. My desktop PC logged an average 25GB of bandwidth a month — it’s a mix of usual surfing, P2P, podcast downloads, YouTube, etc.
For the sake of this computation, let’s say 50% of my monthly usage comes from P2P/Torrents so that putss me at 12.5GB. I think I’m not really that heavy a user in that segment though I download a lot of podcasts and vidcasts.
Now, we multiply that 12.5GB by 422,000 subscribers, that gives us 5,275 Terabytes (or 5.275 Petabytes). Add the numbers of the other telcos/ISPs and the numbers could easily double.
In any case, I believe this is an alarming problem for the telcos and they know that. The next question is — will they be doing something to curb this trend?
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Kiven says:
will bandwidth capping come into play like what is happening sa states? ahhh the days of “unlimited” internet access lol
Hapon says:
Talking about my own country (Japan), many of major ISPs here have started banning P2P apps, and some others now doing bandwidth capping or set the limit for total **uploads** in a week or so, which intends to limit heavy BitTorrent users for sure.
Blogrush fanatic says:
Great post – the problem of Torrent traffic can be a huge nightmare for participants up and down the chain.
Rough numbers based on your 60% – If Torrent Traffic usage triples (and other traffic stays stable) then Torrent Traffic would be nearly 80% of the Internet and total Internet Traffic would more than double.
Nick Nichols says:
This may very well be the future of the internet. Why cap usage and fight the trend?
Is there a capacity problem? If so, we should identify it as a capacity problem, not a dysfunctional user pattern. If the telcos are providing what the market wants, there’s tremendous growth opportunity. Growth = More users = more revenue.
I don’t understand the problem here. (Ok, I’m playing dumb, but trying to draw out the unstated issue)
Blogrush fanatic says:
yeah =) Its not really an issue. Maybe I could launch a digg-like site like opting p2p users in the philippines. Partners? no one? oh well. -)
noypi
minor says:
aXXo rule!!!!
Ordnacin says:
I’m not really surprised with the numbers especially here in the Philippines. I always have Azureus running in the background…
Personally I think bandwidth capping stinks, why penalize us for maximizing what we pay for ? If it was the other way around, people not using enough of their bandwidth you think these telco’s would tell us “hey we’re making too much money off you guys, let us refund you…” – not a chance…
Eugene says:
Only 60%? I was surprised it’s that low. I was thinking maybe 75-80%.
Miguel says:
I doubt the source though – one person/group will know the traffic of another. For example, PLDT will never know about Globe’s stats, and vice versa. Perhaps he speaks about one particular company. Or only one particular service within that company.
JC John SESE Cuneta says:
Hehe lawlz… yep that’s true. 60% is actually low still, if the RIAA wants to sue people, the Philippines is on the #3 HitList ;)