2010: D-day for the Internet as it hits "full capacity"?

Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:19PM EDT

See Comments (737)

y_tech: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/90339 Buzz up!on Yahoo! Doom-filled warnings arrive from AT&T this week. The company says that without substantial investment in network infrastructure, the Internet will essentially run out of bandwidth in just two short years.

Blame broadband, says AT&T. Decades of dealing with the trickle of bandwidth consumed by voice and dialup modems left AT&T twiddling its thumbs. The massive rise of DSL and cable modem service in the 2000s has had AT&T facing a monstrous increase in the volume of data transmissions. And that's set to increase another 50 times between now and 2015. That's enough, says AT&T, to all but crash the system.

In response, AT&T says it's investing $19 billion to upgrade the backbone of the Internet, the routers, servers, and connections where the bulk of traffic is processed.

Of course, AT&T is using this breathlessness in part to point fingers beyond simple broadband use. Web video (especially high-definition video) is the most commonly mentioned bandwidth hog. AT&T says video alone will eat up 80 percent of traffic in two years vs. just 30 percent now. One wonders how YouTube doesn't collapse under the pressure. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, many are wondering whether this is prelude to AT&T announcing (or not announcing, but doing anyway) a traffic prioritization/shaping system like Comcast has been tinkering with... and which has earned it nothing but scorn. Net neutrality (which would forbid premium pricing for certain Internet applications and destinations) is a topic that continues to be hotly debated on Capitol Hill, and telcos are anxious to kill the idea since they'd love to be able to charge additional money for different kinds of web traffic. If the whole Internet is about to crash, well, that makes AT&T's argument all the more compelling, doesn't it?



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I call BS big time! More scare tactics of doom and gloom to milk every cent out of the hard working folk.

 

its a ploy to get more money out of people...

 

While there is need to upgrade the current architecture of the internet, the bandwidth of the internet has about doubled every 18 months for the past decade. We have always been in a world where the future bandwidth needs will be more then the current network can support.

Nothing will happen to the internet.

 

oh I know, I called BS on the story after all. But thats not what many techies in high positions are saying and I expect more y2k like hype to follow. Hopefully folks will keep their heads on straight.

 

I'll ask the techies I know. I assume they'll call bullshit too.

 

The internet just keeps on growing, and more servers are built, purchased, and set up.

It ain't going anywhere.

Completely disgusting marketing sham, and a good one at it.

 

That’s exactly what they said leading up to Y2K

But this time they might actually be right, the internet is headed towards a disaster of biblical proportions. old testament wrath of god kind of stuff, rivers and seas boiling, human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together


Hotwater

 

i'm scared guys

whats going to happen to my celebrity blogs?

 

Don't worry, Mel Gibson will still hate the Jews.

 

whew...i was getting a bit worried

 

i call bullshit and agree with nothing will happen to the internet. parts of the internet will always be free regardless of what the law might say. the underground network is huge. far bigger than the average joe knows. meaning there will always be people online. its just grown far to big.

 

It seems so.

 

-Bill Murray, Ghostbusters



Just back up your important files with discs... and if it all goes down, at least all those annoying old email FWDs will have to start over. That will be a bonus.

 

Well done, Mitten

As long as there is a free market there will be the interweb. Information wants to be free.