Residents and visitors to Hong Kong know how much we have come to rely on bandwidth in our daily lives – it’s in short supply and has been since damage caused by the Boxing Day earthquake. Far away from the skyscrapers which cover Hong Kong cables were severely damaged and this has reduced bandwidth available in the region. Hong Kong has bee hard hit. East Asia Media News reports the situation well.
Slow internet speed means people are rationing what they do online. It’s a drought of bandwidth and there are implications everywhere: from business to individuals. Even getting emails through is a challenge despite what authorities say. In my case I wanted to complete some banking and what would usually take a minute or two back home was a game of hit and miss over three hours.
While bandwidth is not a natural resource, it is as important to our lives. Many purely online businesses do not have a fallback for extended periods of outage or bandwidth shortage. I was in a shop today where they are connected to the head office for all transactions and have gone manual because of speed and reliability. People using Skype have been hit particularly hard. There are stories of prices going up if you want more bandwidth. There is also some frustration that businesses are given preferential treatment during the day.
Back in Australia we are in the grip of a dreadful drought and life with water restrictions is normal. Here in Hong Kong they are living with restrictions of a different kind. Both resources are crucial to daily living and it is not until they are in limited supply that you realise how much you waste.
I have go to now. Bandwidth is precious.