Experts Warn Internet Is Running Out of Bandwidth

[underpants]

The Sunday Times via Fox News-I'm just throwing this out there...but I don't think they are ;-)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518405,00.html

Internet users face regular "brownouts" that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year.

Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 percent a year, will start to exceed supply as early as 2010 because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry Web sites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC's iPlayer.

It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. Beginning in 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the Internet an "unreliable toy."

However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the Web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems.

[Pierre.Suave]

1. hmmmmm

I am a bit skeptical...

[underpants]

3. Planting the seed to undermine Net Neutrality...I think

Who knows, maybe we are running out of bandwidth. Frankly I am NOT helping matters

[liberal N proud]

2. Y2K-12?

[Uzybone]

21. yep...another bogus scare.

[scarletwoman]

4. I don't have time to search right now, but there was a thread about this yesterday and the notion

that we're running out of bandwidth was pretty well debunked.

It appears that this is just a scare tactic being thrown out there in the ongoing effort to fight Net Neutrality.

Beware!

sw

[OneGrassRoot]

6. I recall that thread early on....

and someone also said it was a precursor to "tiered usage pricing" or something like that.

[MorningGlow]

12. That critter reared its ugly head in our area a few weeks ago

Time Warner Cable, with practically no competition around here, declared they were going to implement tiered usage pricing. It would have doubled our cable bill at the LEAST--and Mr. MG and I use the intertubes for our freelance work--try getting freelance clients to pay extra to upload and download huge files and see how far you get. But the backlash was immediate and LOUD, and the phone company's DSL is an alternative that a lot of people suddenly started looking at seriously, so TWC backed down. For now. But they're just hiding in their lair, waiting for a better time to trot this nasty plan out again--likely after this "running out of bandwidth" meme takes hold. :eyes:

[OneGrassRoot]

13. Wow, I vaguely recall hearing about that, too. That would....

put a LOT of people out of work, including myself. Surely there would be a tremendous backlash, as too many rely on the Internet now for work.

SURELY they won't ever be able to implement that.

Yikes.....:scared:

[MorningGlow]

16. Apparently the have, in a small town in Texas

Trial balloon and all that. Mr. MG, computer guru, mentioned it to me. I'll see if I can find a reference to it online.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Again???

Sounds like more anti Net Neutrality bullshit. Capacity is diversifying...wireless systems and fiber are increaing, not decreasing bandwidth.

So, I'll bet this "think tank" proposes allowing the ISPs and their corporate owners to determine who gets bandwidth...try to do what Ken Lay tried a decade ago.

[Solon]

7. Generally this is a problem that throwing a few more wires around will cure...

Though it would be nice if they could find a way to transmit information a little more efficiently, and try to find ways to reduce packet loss, that would at least reduce the need for such a large number of wide bandwidth cables.

[Historic NY]

8. it was bound to happen..

[leftofthedial]

9. Shouldn't that read,

"Experts Warn Internet Is Running Out of Bandwid" ?



More tubes! We need more tubes!

[high density]

10. lol.

These people have no idea what they're talking about. Sounds like they're laying the framework for an anti-net neutrality push like Time Warner's metered bandwidth billing.

[dweller]

11. FWD THIS TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESSBOOK NOW!!1

that oughta help...

dp

[datasuspect]

14. MUST. WIN. THE. INTERNET. NOW!

[undeterred]

15. Ban gamers.

:hide:

[rcrush]

25. Millions of teenagers around the world will become terrorists.

Or die from the sudden loss of their warcrack.

[NYCGirl]

17. The Exaflood Myth Just Won't Die (in other words, the Times article is crap)

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/The-Exaflood-Myth-Just-Wont-Die-102202

The term "exaflood," created by the same PR tank that crafted the term "intelligent design," is part of a sophisticated campaign aimed at convincing the press, public and lawmakers that without giving carriers what they want (less regulation, no net neutrality laws, no price controls, huge subsidies and tax credits, less consumer protection), the world will simply run out of bandwidth and we'll all be weeping over our clogged tubes.

Andrew Odlyzko, one of the nation's top experts on global Internet traffic, repeatedly notes that while growth is strong, it doesn't necessitate drastic new pricing model shifts (metered billing), and is entirely manageable with just modest capacity upgrades. According to Odlyzko, the current Internet growth rate of about 50% per year "can be accommodated with essentially the current level of capital investment." If anything, Odlyzko predicts a slow down (something Cogent data confirms).

That doesn't stop carriers from repeatedly suggesting that a bandwidth apocalypse looms. One of the industry's favorite source of capacity scare mongering is Nemertes Research, who, since 2007, has published a series of reports insisting that video demand is going to result in Internet brownouts. Their studies result in wholly unskeptical reports like this one in the UK Times Online. Be afraid:

MORE AT LINK

[Matariki]

18. The Internet - it's so small!

That's one of the surprising things about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UUzXIvLmh0

:rofl:

[L0oniX]

19. Thank gawd for think tanks.

[backscatter712]

20. Now the big telcos are predicting the END OF THE INTERNET!!! Hmmm, I wonder what their agenda is...

Let's see. Aired on cable news. That would mean Time Warner, Comcast, et al is involved.

They want no net neutrality, and deregulation, so they can squeeze our bandwidth, partially to protect their cable TV profits, partially to squelch the bloggers and Youtubers so they can't get their message out effectively and we're stuck watching FIXED News, and mostly so they can gouge the fuck out of us and demand $200/mo for a tiny trickle of the Internet, and charge web sites a shitload just to carry their packets to us.

[backscatter712]

22. What the big cable companies want the Internet to look like...

[Taverner]

23. Complete BS. There is enough dark fiber out there to power things 10x over

[PermanentRevolution]

24. Time to build some more o' them tubes...