Behind The Scenes of Internet Innovation

Thanks to the Internet, a universe of opportunities is now available to us--from conducting business and communicating with friends to online learning and innovative entertainment options.  Even as we take advantage of broadband, we rarely stop to think about how the Internet works.  To shed light on what's powering Internet innovation, our latest Broadband Now video takes you behind the scenes. 

Did you know the Internet is comprised of individual networks connecting and collaborating from all around the world?  In the U.S. alone, 1,400 private companies maintain broadband facilities powering this web of communication.  And, as any savvy business knows, investment is the root of innovation.  This is true of Internet capacity, which doubles nearly every 20 months, thanks to the significant infrastructure investment of America's broadband providers that totaled 120 billion dollars over the past two years alone. 

These contributions help explain how the Internet became so powerful in a relatively short span of time.  Consider this: the U.S. Internet handled 1.5 million gigabytes of Internet traffic a month in 1996, but by 2006 that figure jumped to 700 million gigabytes a month.  Here's a real world example of the kind of power that translates to: every 15 minutes the Internet moves a volume of information equivalent to the Library of Congress's entire collection of books, pictures, maps and manuscripts. 

With continuous investment in capacity, the Internet and its networks will only become increasingly sophisticated and bring more life-enhancing advances.  To read more about what's behind Internet innovation, tune into our latest Broadband Now video.