November 26, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – A new report provided by analysis firm Nemertes Research Group suggests billions of dollars in infrastructure development are required to stop the Internet overloading. Exceeding the Internet’s current capacity, the report said, could lead to “brown-outs” in around two years. Without “backbone” providers investing in new infrastructure, there could be a meltdown by 2010.
The study established its results by applying “Moore's Law”, which suggests the amount of computer memory usage will double every two years. The rise of the Internet as a business medium and the prevalence of video and other bandwidth intensive media have been suggested as key reasons for the massive increase in data the Internet carries. According to the report, 161 exabytes (or 1.1 billion gigabytes) of new data will be created for the Internet this year.
Ensuring this data is catered for is the responsibility of backbone providers, but policy makers, particularly U.S. lawmakers, may also be called upon to assist in the matter. Support may come in the form of tax breaks for broadband providers that add capacity. In addition, governments may be called upon to reduce telecommunication service taxes.
