Blog: John Myers: Predictions of Internet Slow Down

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Predictions of Internet Slow Down

On Friday in an NPR interview, Tom Merritt talked about his predictions for the future. In those predictions, Merritt talked about how the bandwidth intensive applications may soon choke the Internet and how telecoms may have to start charging premium rates to discourage "unlimited usage". This closely mirrors a study reviewed by Sarah Reedy about an impending "shortage" of bandwidth.

I find it interesting that when building additional bandwidth is discussed by the telecom corporations, the Net Neutrality folks come out of the woodwork. However, when the analysts discuss the concept of running out of bandwidth or bandwidth shortages, the Net Neutrality folks are little quieter on the concept of building out additional infrastructure.

My prediction is that Net Neutrality discussion will have VERY different tone than it did in late 2006 and early 2007 during 2008. If we start to see those predicted shortages of bandwidth and it impacts the Second Life-esqe applications or the YouTubes of the world; we should see a cry to the telecom to put in additional bandwidth and "damn the costs...".

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Tom Merritt, Sarah Reedy, NPR, Net Neutrality