The video conferencing boom

Video conferencing on the Internet is something every service provider gets asked about a lot, but it`s not something we can really offer in any sensible manner right now. Apart from restrictions on marketing, this kind of service imposed on us by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is an unfortunate interplay between unrealistically high expectations on the side of the user and the restrictions of networks and technology.

Ironically, the best way to video conference in SA right now is entirely outside the Internet.

Potential users of video conferencing expect this service to be easily deliverable, no doubt driven by the assumption that the Internet - which is after all, all things to all men (and women) - can be a good vehicle for this kind of application. In principle, and in an ideal world, this would be true. If indeed it were only a matter of growing the bandwidth on all SA Internet networks, both local and international, in proportion to customer expectations of delivery, then we`d be video conferencing happily every day.

But even those of us who have offices in all major SA cities - with connectivity in between - don`t typically have this type of technology readily available. Where it does exist, the experience is either of two things - expensive and somewhat oddly futuristic (you go to the video conferencing room and plan meetings carefully); or cheap and basically unusable.

Ironically, the best way to video conference in SA right now is entirely outside the Internet. Apart from being legal, using twin-channel ISDN (approximately 128Kbps) and dedicated encoding/decoding stations with microphone arrangements and large-screen television sets works quite well. Unfortunately, the installation starts at several tens of thousands of rand.

Most customers cannot justify this expense realistically, as it`s not proven that video conferencing does actually cut down on travel costs (which is the usual motivator). Telkom uses its ordinary voice/data infrastructure for this purpose, and it`s feasible to compress both sound and vision to 128Kbps using MPEG-3 or another streaming content encoding mechanism.

From an Internet point of view, this kind of dedicated bandwidth is just not feasible. Access lines, given all routing overheads, would need to be at least 256Kbps in size, and the backbone bandwidth (essentially the equivalent of point to point) required would be a traffic-shaped 128Kbps. Since SA ISPs are buying the same bandwidth, essentially at costs similar to what the end-user buys it at, and have to make a profit to survive, the "value-add" isn`t strong enough for this to be an attractive option. Add to that the South African legal restrictions on transmitting voice over networks other than the basic Telkom one, and the whole thing becomes infeasible.

But I sound like I`m whining about this, and before this becomes another "oh-woe-is-us" piece, let`s look at some of the other options, problems and solutions.

The resale model, when it comes to truly bandwidth-intensive applications such as video conferencing, isn`t feasible. The Internet model, though it is supposed to make all data transfer applications equal in principle and practise, isn`t a good one in South Africa right now. This applies to video conferencing as well as other applications that would add layer upon layer to the network, all requiring serious bandwith (think tunnelling in a VPN).

Until a local backbone network can be built cheaply and effectively (read: privately), there`s little hope in this equation. Internet bandwidth in SA is a type of value-added service, and everything revolves around access to resources that are primarily located off-shore (North America, Europe). This is where the Internet is a cost-effective resource - in information access and shared international bandwidth. Local businesses simply couldn`t afford point to point connections for every international data requirement.

So right now, the Internet in SA isn`t a particularly cost-effective mechanism to reduce the forbidding costs of point to point connections (especially in the case of video conferencing, which basically requires dedicated bandwidth). Technically, my technologist friends assure me, there`s nothing standing in the way of it, but the costs aren`t going to be anything to write home about. The Internet`s current strength is in shared, affordable, international information access. No more, no less.

Growing the local infrastructure to at least make Internet video conferencing a possiblity inside SA is dependent on local content. At first glance, I know, the two don`t seem to have anything much in common.

After all, how does the fact that SA Internet users conduct up to 90% of their Web "transactions" (read: viewing pages) overseas, relate to the fact that total bandwidth available between Cape Town and Johannesburg is probably less than the bandwidth that, for example, Sprint Canada maintains in redundant Internet links (about 360Mbps in total)?

Internet access providers will, in principle, only increase their local bandwidth as they feel it`s necessary. Of course, such business decisions are made within the confines of the bulk product they sell, as well as based on sensible business and technology assumptions. Most customers are simply dissuaded from trying to do video conferencing using their corporate Internet connections. The result: they either discover the hard way that it`s not feasible, or they buy more bandwidth - each solution fits squarely into the SA ISP`s assumptions and doesn`t rock the boat.

For ISPs to think it necessary to significantly upgrade their local backbone network, their bulk customers need to be doing more on the local Internet. Currently, the local Web offerings, with a few notable exceptions, are simply too slim pickings to be of any traffic-sustaining impact. Sure, we regularly upgrade our links into the SA interconnection points, but those upgrades are routine and don`t typically enable anything requiring high, dedicated bandwidths.

The conclusion: for the Internet to become a true alternative to point to point dedicated wide area networking, several things have to happen in SA. These include better local content (to redress the current imbalance between local and international activities), telecommunications deregulation (so that private networks can be built and maintained by people who know how to get the last bit of efficiency out of them without charging a monopolistic fortune) and - perhaps - fewer assumptions about the Internet being all things to all people.