the future of the internet

[- English -]

Just a little discussion topic to discuss this:
Its part of an assigment Im doing and id like peoples opinions on this topic:

To come to some sort of start, ive said that in a short period of time, the internet is going to collapse due to all the data being transfered. There wont be enough bandwidth for everyone considering there are over 1.4 billion users connected to the net and rising (World Internet Usage Statistics News and Population Stats)
Not to mention that new technology (not just pcs) are taking bandwidth, phones, cars, even fridges!

Alot of upgrades must be done imo to keep the internet up (first kick virgin media out of the table lol)...

what can you see the internet like in 10 -15 years?

 

[Laddey]

what can you see the internet like in 10 -15 years?

I'll tell you in 10 - 15 years

 

[crispy]

Well to be honest i think the problem is overrated (but i lack data!).

Consider that 90% of the traffic is p2p (movies, music etc etc) and that most people already now download what they need and want (eg. they wont be downloading a whole lot more the next couple of years). However there might be comming more p2p users (younger people getting the internets). But i have no idea of how many new p2p users there will be, but it might be an interesting point to consider (look at net traffic vs p2p users).

Also they are probably already 'building the net bigger' so we can download more, but the question is: is it enough?

A last thing: p2p was the biggest traffic generator, but alot of p2p traffic might just take the route through a single ISP (ie p2p users are on the same ISP), which still generates traffic which is reflected in the statistics, but they forget that its probably not a problem since the traffic doesnt run from the US over the atlantic or stuff like that...

Hope you know what i mean

 

[crispy]

Well to be honest i think the problem is overrated (but i lack data!).

Consider that 90% of the traffic is p2p (movies, music etc etc) and that most people already now download what they need and want (eg. they wont be downloading a whole lot more the next couple of years)*. However there might be comming more p2p users (younger people getting the internets). But i have no idea of how many new p2p users there will be, but it might be an interesting point to consider (look at net traffic vs p2p users).

Also they are probably already 'building the net bigger' so we can download more, but the question is: is it enough?

A last thing: p2p was the biggest traffic generator, but alot of p2p traffic might just take the route through a single ISP (ie p2p users are on the same ISP), which still generates traffic which is reflected in the statistics, but they forget that its probably not a problem since the traffic doesnt run from the US over the atlantic or stuff like that...

Hope you know what i mean

edit to clarify * the average mb/year downloaded wont be changing much is my what i tried to say

 

[Mephz]

"Internet" will only get faster, not the other way around.

 

[Lamp]

The internet will be made illegal on May 17th, 2217. Post boxes will re-appear. A thing called the Post Office will appear on all high streets. People will no longer want to pay £50 a month for their telephones (which will be injectable implants), and telegraph poles will re-appear.

 

[- English -]

"Internet" will only get faster, not the other way around.

will it though?

 

[crispy]

Alternatively they will make 'bandwidth trucks' which is basicly a normal truck but with like 10000000 1tb harddisk in...

Dont underestimate the bandwidth of a truck going down the highway with that many disks...

 

[pikeh]

Alternatively they will make 'bandwidth trucks' which is basicly a normal truck but with like 10000000 1tb harddisk in...

Dont underestimate the bandwidth of a truck going down the highway with that many disks...

just dont let Alistair Darling look after it

 

[aika]

I work in an ISP company (in Israel), around 51% of the population has broadband internet here,( which means basically almost every family) we already suffer huge bandwith problems during the weekends and it only gets worse and worse, so unless som improvements will be done, we will start suffering bandwidth blackouts in the next year :E

 

[Hawkwind]

I work in an ISP company (in Israel), around 51% of the population has broadband internet here,( which means basically almost every family) we already suffer huge bandwith problems during the weekends and it only gets worse and worse, so unless som improvements will be done, we will start suffering bandwidth blackouts in the next year :E

Most of the problems you have are the same here in Dubai. The ISP's are building internal networks but not investing enough in the global tie ups. They put profit ahead of connectivity which if you were a share holder you would expect them to do. 2 years ago we lost internet for about 2 weeks due to a rupture in a submarine cable after an earthquake.

The Internet will grow, the number of major nodes will also grow to keep the traffic moving. Global players like AT&T and Worldcom will be laying more Fibre cables to take that bandwidth. Personally I do not see the net getting completely chocked. It is too important for business and particularly the financial sectors. Maybe the ISP's will start to prioritise traffic with business users who generally pay more getting better service. With home users suffering slightly. This already happens in many countries already due to the international link bandwidths.

 

[Bahumat]

They're hopefully releasing ADSL2 in 2008 so that's gonna be mcuh faster. Some companies already offer this. I am sure they are well aware of this issue about bandwidth.

 

[fettoken]

I can see the internet full of 11 y/o leet kids zerging all over the place with their 1337 speek language combined with their ADHD and complete lack of spelling making regular people crazy and abandoning it completely

 

[Sharma]

IPV6 please!

 

[Eeben]

Dont think bandwidth will be a problem since there is no limit on fiber.. Only need converters
big enough..

 

[GReaper]

Bandwidth is a weird thing which is a bit difficult to control. Whenever an ISP adds more bandwidth for end users, the instant increase in bandwidth consumed by P2P applications makes it seem pointless.

As for UK infrastructure, Virgin Media is probably in a better medium term future for faster connections. DOCSIS3 will allow 50Mbit/s much more easily compared to the current network. BT is struggling along to get ADSL2 going, even though LLU providers have been offering it for a while.

For BT the next step is going to be the most awkward one. Either they'll go with VDSL as the next logical step forward, but it still requires major upgrades and is only 50Mbit/s for most people, or they could go with fibre which is a massive upgrade. Spending time/effort on VDSL seems daft considering it's yet another minor upgrade in speed when this country needs massive upgrades.

IPv6 adoption is pathetic considering we're getting closer and closer to running out of IPv4 addresses.

The future of the Internet looks... weird!