Circa 2010: The Internet – Dangerously Low on Resources

If nothing goes well, this is likely to be the headline staring at us one of these days... in the year 2010. That is, if Internet operators do not wake up to reality and deal with this almost 'life-threatening' situation for the global urbane populace.

Latest studies on the Internet and its functionality reveal that the propulsion of videos and web content will, by the turn of this decade, overwhelm this exhaustive resource of its capacity. Experts predict that service providers in this domain will have to shelve out a good $137 billion in order to avert this 'disaster'. And unfortunately, this amount happens to be more than double of what these companies were actually planning to invest!

With an increasing number of sites offering features like music downloads, interactive video, file transfers, et al, the demand for Internet capacity is heading only in one direction - upwards. And, as things stand, peer-to-peer data transfer happens to be the greatest culprit in the whole scenario. The 'exaflood' of video and web content might actually clog broadband pipes, resulting in an acute shortage of capacity.

These studies further indicate that the North American region will be badly affected, with Internet access infrastructure looking to fall way below the demand mark within the next five years. The storm that has taken off in the American region can actually go on to engulf other major Internet players around the globe.

The answer lies in broadband providers' ability to add more capacity to their networks. Consumers, on their end, have to be generous enough to pay high taxes, as telecommunication services look set to take the expensive route.

Just hope we never come across such a headline!