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YouTube Could Take Down Your Internet

Surging demand for video may cause Web 'brownouts': experts

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 26, 2009 2:46 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Watching those Susan Boyle and laughing baby clips on YouTube may soon come with a price: slower, shaky Internet connections, the Telegraph reports. Experts warn of a “brownout,” caused by outdated web systems unable to keep pace with surging online use of video sites, that will paralyze computers, threaten the economy, and leave the Internet an “unreliable toy.”

YouTube’s monthly bandwidth now equals the amount consumed across the entire Internet for all of 2000. “Today people know how home computers slow down when the kids get back from school and start playing games, but by 2012 that traffic jam could last all day long,” said one expert. Still, a plan to charge websites for faster service remains controversial.

Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites.
Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites.   (Shutter Stock)
Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube cause online traffic to double.
Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube cause online traffic to double.   (Shutter Stock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
kokuaguy
May 22, 2009 5:03 AM CDT
But it does seem somehow "un-American" that one person can sit at the computer all day using huge amounts of bandwith and still pays no more than the person who uses the internet a couple of hours a day sending email and chatting.
drlarrymitchell
Apr 27, 2009 4:58 AM CDT
The internet is not a big truck. The internet is a series of tubes.
scottaco
Apr 26, 2009 10:28 AM CDT
Once again, the companies that are charging us these jacked up prices, supposedly due to rebuilding the infrastructure, are claiming they can't keep up. The CEO's and major stockholders are sitting pretty while they gear up to convince the government that they need to raise prices again (considerably more this time I'm sure) or "the whole thing will collapse." WTF?! The routine has already gotten stale.

Wave of disruption could begin next year
Times (UK)

 
Internet • YouTube • broadband Internet • web traffic • computers

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