Asking if someone wants more bandwidth is a lot like asking them if they want more money, or more free time, or more sunny, 75-degree days. The answer is obvious.

But as obvious as the answer may be, when it comes to bandwidth, sometimes it’s more important to first ask yourself what you need, rather than simply what is available. This isn’t the way we’ve been trained to think. Ever since we started linking one computer with another, the bandwidth we had was never quite enough. My 14k modem just wasn’t good enough back in the early 90s once that 28k modem became available. Even though it was a big improvement over the 9600 baud modem I had before. And when they talked about 56k modems … wow, I had to have one of those as soon as I could.

The Great Bandwidth Pursuit has continued ever since, to the point now where so much bandwidth is available … for a price, of course … that it’s the main selling point for many bundled services providers. And Google is blowing the lid off that contest with its testing of gigabit broadband services in some markets.

The question I always pose to enterprises is this: How much bandwidth do you really need? And if you had more bandwidth, what would you do with it? Would you combine networks in some way to make everything run more efficiently? Would you move to VoIP, or replace travel with videoconferencing? Would you do *more* for your business? If the answer is yes, then 4G wireless may be just what you need. With 4G becoming available this year in many more markets, covering 40 percent of the U.S. population, the bandwidth is certainly there for you. On the wired side, gaining bandwidth is certainly no challenge.

How much bandwidth your enterprise needs depends on what it takes to properly support your business. There will always be options, whether you choose 4G or Ethernet services, or decide to sustain a T1. What matters most is that you have options and can choose the one that best meets your needs.

-Steve