How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone

by Brian McCullough

What did this mean, ultimately? Well, it meant that for the coming years, the literal infrastructure that would allow for the maturation of the Internet was in place. And because of a resulting glut of fiber (the telecoms had overextended themselves just as disastrously as the dot-coms, thus the bankruptcies) in the years after the dot-com bubble burst, there was a severe overcapacity in bandwidth for Internet usage that allowed the next wave of companies to deliver sophisticated new Internet services on the cheap. By 2004, the cost of bandwidth had fallen by more than 90%, despite Internet usage continuing to double every few years.83 As late as 2005, as much as 85% of broadband capacity in the United States was still going unused.84 That meant as soon as new “killer apps” were developed, apps like social media and streaming video, there was plenty of cheap capacity allowing them to roll out to the masses.