September 23, 2022
IIA was launched 18 years ago today, on September 23, 2004! 🎂 A lot has changed in the world, thanks to broadband. Here’s a look back at 2004, when IIA was founded:
- In 2004, it would take 81.7 hours to download a 10GB file on dial-up and 3.2 hours on DSL. In 2022, the time it takes to download a 10GB file at the national average internet speed is 1.4 minutes.
- In 2004, the price per Mbps was $90. In 2022, the price for the same is $0.37!
- In 2004, for the first time ever, there were more people in the US who had access to broadband internet than dial-up, which has a maximum speed of 56 kbps. In 2022, fiber, with speeds up to 100 Gbps, is now available to nearly half of U.S. households.
- In 2004, you needed to use a paper map to navigate during a road trip or a printer to spit out your driving directions. Today, your phone contains a built-in GPS receiver that can track your location without cell service or you can use a community-driven navigation map app that updates its users on the go to avoid traffic jams, see where other users are on the road, and get recommendations on nearby amenities.
- In 2004, Facebook was born. Today, there are nearly 3 billion Facebook users across the globe.
- In 2004, you either needed to use your phone to dial a cab service or to hail a taxi on the side of the road. Today, you can use a mobile app to summon a driver to your exact location and share your progress along your route with loved ones in real-time.
- In 2004, YouTube was a year away from coming into existence and videos spread through sites like eBaum’s World. Today, YouTube is the second most visited website on the internet.
- In 2004, the Motorola Razr was the thing of tech dreams. Today, Apple sells a million iPhones…every 1.5 days.
- In 2004, 12% of the world population used the internet. In 2022, 69% of the world’s citizens are online.
- In 2004, Mozilla launched Firefox. Today, Google Chrome is the most popular browser by a longshot with 3.3 billion users, compared to Apple Safari at #2 with 1 billion users.
- In 2004, Netflix snail-mailed DVDs. Fast forward to today, Netflix’s U.S. library contains around 6,000 titles that can be streamed in an instant.
- In 2004, the price per GB of hard drive storage was a whole dollar. In 2022, the cost per GB for the “best” (according to Tom’s Guide) external hard drive is just $0.03.
