Even if the iPad is all it’s hyped to be, it will be only as good as the wireless that provides content to it. And that has a lot of people worried. “Carrier networks aren’t set to handle five million tablets sucking down 5 gigabytes of data each month,” says Philip Cusick, an analyst at Macquarie Securities. “It’s only going to get worse as streaming video gets more prevalent.”

Cusick’s dour assessment is quoted in a New York Times article by Jenna Wortham describing the strain that the iPad and other tablets will add to a cellphone network that is already laboring. “America’s advanced cellphone network is already beginning to be bogged down by smartphones that double as computers, navigation devices and e-book readers. Cellphones are increasingly being used as TVs, which hog even more bandwidth. They can also transmit video, allowing for videoconferencing on cellphones.”

Just how heavy is the anticipated traffic? Wortham cites an AT&T executive who reports “an unprecedented increase in wireless data use of nearly 7,000 percent since late 2006.”

No wonder. Wortham reminds us that “An hour of browsing the Web on a mobile phone consumes roughly 40 megabytes of data. Streaming tunes on an Internet radio station like Pandora draws down 60 megabytes each hour. Watching a grainy YouTube video for the same period of time causes the data consumption to nearly triple. And watching a live concert or a sports event will consume close to 300 megabytes an hour.”

What does that mean in practical terms? Well, let’s put it this way: make sure you have lots of things to occupy yourself with while gazing at your progress bar.

Here’s Wortham’s article in its entirety.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.