Is the Exaflood Coming?

Coverage Type: 

IS THE EXTRAFLOOD COMING?
[SOURCE: New York Times/BITS, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
Are we facing a capacity crunch that will soon clog the global network, as it is overwhelmed by what some warn is a coming “exaflood” of demand? This is far more than a technical question. Regulatory and tax policy for the telecommunications industry hinges on the answer. If the threat of an exaflood is imminent, the argument for tax incentives to stimulate investment becomes stronger. So does the hand of the telecommunications lobby in its opposition to so-called Net neutrality (all bit users treated equally). The telecom carriers claim that the corporate bit-hogs like Google and its subsidiary YouTube should pay more because they use so much network capacity. A The report by Nemertes Research -- “The Internet Singularity, Delayed: Why Limits in Internet Capacity Will Stifle Innovation on the Web" -- projects that user demand for the Internet could outpace network capacity by 2010. Andrew Odlyzko, a professor at the University of Minnesota, debates the numbers.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/is-the-exaflood-coming/
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Is the Exaflood Coming?