Internet capacity 'full by 2010'
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Report finds demand growing faster than infrastructure investment...
The network infrastructure that gives businesses and consumers access to the Internet may reach its maximum capacity within three years, according to a US telecommunications analyst company.
Newly published research by Nemertes Research compared the rate at which demand for network bandwidth is growing with the extra bandwidth telecommunications companies are planning to provide.
The report found that although the switches and routers that make up the guts of the Internet will be able to handle the exponential growth in bandwidth demand for many years to come, the access infrastructure – which devices to the network – will approach its maximum capacity in 2010.
This does not mean that the Internet will break, the reports authors insist – the design of the network precludes that outcome. But it may mean that innovation on the Internet will be stifled as bandwidth capacity plateaus, they warned.
“We estimate the financial investment required by access providers to bridge the gap between demand and capacity ranges from $42 billion to $55 billion, or roughly 60%-70% more than service providers currently plan to invest,” the report concludes.
Further reading
Access management Can Citrix's thin-client technology help it to push further into the enterprise to become a mainstay of access infrastructure?
IP: Infinite possibilities IP-based services will support a huge range of new applications and services – eventually.
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