The End of the Internet

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awip2062
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The End of the Internet

Post by awip2062 »

Doom-filled warnings arrive from AT&T this week. The company says that without substantial investment in network infrastructure, the Internet will essentially run out of bandwidth in just two short years.

Blame broadband, says AT&T. Decades of dealing with the trickle of bandwidth consumed by voice and dialup modems left AT&T twiddling its thumbs. The massive rise of DSL and cable modem service in the 2000s has had AT&T facing a monstrous increase in the volume of data transmissions. And that's set to increase another 50 times between now and 2015. That's enough, says AT&T, to all but crash the system.

In response, AT&T says it's investing $19 billion to upgrade the backbone of the Internet, the routers, servers, and connections where the bulk of traffic is processed.

Of course, AT&T is using this breathlessness in part to point fingers beyond simple broadband use. Web video (especially high-definition video) is the most commonly mentioned bandwidth hog. AT&T says video alone will eat up 80 percent of traffic in two years vs. just 30 percent now. One wonders how YouTube doesn't collapse under the pressure. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, many are wondering whether this is prelude to AT&T announcing (or not announcing, but doing anyway) a traffic prioritization/shaping system like Comcast has been tinkering with... and which has earned it nothing but scorn. Net neutrality (which would forbid premium pricing for certain Internet applications and destinations) is a topic that continues to be hotly debated on Capitol Hill, and telcos are anxious to kill the idea since they'd love to be able to charge additional money for different kinds of web traffic. If the whole Internet is about to crash, well, that makes AT&T's argument all the more compelling, doesn't it?
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Sir Myghin
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Post by Sir Myghin »

Somehow this seems slightly farfetched.
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awip2062
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Post by awip2062 »

Is that not normal, however?

Yet another doomsday prediction which has become so common these days.
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Post by Me »

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Last edited by Me on Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men & women stand as a vanguard against abuse.
CygnusX1
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Post by CygnusX1 »

Only Al Gore can tell us where the end of the internet lies.

After all, he invented the damned thing... :roll: :lol:
Don't start none...won't be none.
Sir Myghin
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Post by Sir Myghin »

I thought he invented global warming :twisted:
Soup4Rush
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Post by Soup4Rush »

nah, that was his mansion and his jet that he uses to attend all of his global warming speeches.
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Me
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Post by Me »

Now cut that out being so critical afterall he is trying to help
isn't his carbon footprint equaled out by something he does?
I for one do believe we are in a dramatic change and when I hear 10 years down the road this is going to happen or 20 perhaps fifty whatever it is you might as well cut that time by 2/3 because it's going faster than expected so everyone needs to paint thier roofs white and we need to tow out a reflective shield 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the United States to reverse it for a few years simple answer to a tuff problem so get to sewing ladys times a ticking and that's my wierd answer to solve the problem or temporary fix rather and think honestly it could work.
When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men & women stand as a vanguard against abuse.
Sir Myghin
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Post by Sir Myghin »

me wrote: isn't his carbon footprint equaled out by something he does?
Naw it just makes him a ridiculous hypocrite, and theres not much I detest more than hypocrites.
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Post by Me »

I don't know I'll have to look it up and see if I can find out.
When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men & women stand as a vanguard against abuse.
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