Some operators in the streaming field are very imaginative and create deceptive or impossible slogans. When you hear about "unlimited users", watch out because this is not possible. To understand this, we can compare the broadband backbones to motorways (that have limited dimensions): you cannot say that in a motorway an unlimited number of cars can pass with a steady speed of 100 Kph. It is a lie because as soon as the traffic exceeds the capacity of the road, traffic jam block the motorway for hours.
It is more correct to say that Internet infrastructures can be expanded without limits, as the Internet fills up with streaming users, but it is necessary to have an affordability index represented by the minimum bandwidth guaranteed to every customer. This bandwidth, depending on the reliability of the circuit, is the key factor of the service’s cost. The less the band is guaranteed, the less the service will cost: a guaranteed band on a XSDL circuit will always cost less than a guaranteed band on optical fibre circuit (much more steady and affordable, and so more expensive). Finally, a not-redundant band on XSDL circuit will be much less expensive than a redundant optical fibre band with mobile radio links.
Theoretically the only technology that can support unlimited contacts is Multicast Streaming, but it is necessary that every user utilizes the same network: inside this network the Multicast protocol has to be managed presso ogni pop di attestazione. In Italy we are very far from this, every single network is not completely in Multicast and they are not connected one with the other with this protocol. So Unicast is the only solution. Unitedcom points out to the Italian Authority of Competition and Market every case of deceptive advertising, made by "streaming operators" that promise unlimited users. The Authority condemned for the first time Maria TV for deceptive advertising, because it promoted a streaming service with "unlimited accesses". Unitedcom communicates immediately this cases to the Authority.
