'Internet Overload'

Just caught the backend of BBC's 'Click Online' today and heard their key presenter beginning a slot on the idea that the Internet is now getting so overloaded that it is in danger of collapse.

This is something that has been around quite a bit recently and it is one of the questions that is often leveled at me .... sort of at the same level as over twenty years ago when calculators first came out and I was asked what I would do if the batteries ran out.

It is an interesting point though as the network that we used is not actually owned by anyone and that regulation is not universal and that the structure that allows for the movement of all of this data is in the hands of competing telecoms companies.

The congestion, now that we have all but taken up the slack left in the system by the collapse of the 'Internet bubble' could be going to cause industry and commerce a problem ... not to say Government departments etc. ... so if there is a shortfall, where will it be made up from ? I could suspect that it might come from the cutback on what bandwidth you have at home. And ... I wonder where education fits in here?

We have begun to rely on something that has evolved exponentially rather than something that has been designed to meet purpose (after all the purpose is evolving too).

From the BBC;
'For decades ( ??? the question marks are mine) the Internet has kept pace with our demands on it. And demand continues to grow. And the service providers will continue to insist that the net will survive, and the doomsayers will continue to insist that it is just about to collapse.'

Read the Click article here.