Global Internet users would be confronted with a challenge that experts say would make the use of the Internet difficult.
The Internet is expected to slow down, as the number of users around the world grows, a study has said.
The growing demand for the Internet by businesses and individuals is expected to make the Internet unreliable, and this according to the study, will happen in the next one year.
The increase in businesses and gadgets that send videos rather than text would slow down the Internet, because the sending of videos requires more than the existing pipe works require and would lead to overload.
Speaking on the BBC Business Day show monitored in Accra by ghanabusinessnews.com, Ted Witter of the American research firm Namenities, which has done the study, said, “One issue is; things will slow down, so it will take much longer for you to download that video or much longer to send that big email with all those pictures of the grand kids to mum and dad.”
“The other issue is; the performance will become much more unpredictable,” he added.
He warned that companies that rely on people to connect on the Internet to access their services cannot predict how easily people could do that, because the Internet will become congested and unreliable.
The reaction to Namenities’ report however, Witter said has been “alarmist”. He said, while most of the critics of the report agree that this would happen, what they disagree with is the time frame within which that would happen.
Capacity would have to be increased to meet demand, he suggested, adding that, that would require a lot of money.
He called for upgrade of the connections through the building of fibre optics to meet the growing demand for the Internet.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
Oh, please die, internet.
How I hate what’s happened to the newspaper, radio, television, music and movie industries. Thanks to getting things for free, no one wants to advertise or create new content when they know it can be ripped and distributed in minutes.
Why do you think so many “reality” shows are on TV?
And if everything moves to the internet the same thing will happen–advertising on the internet is only 10% of what these industries thought it would be by now.
So please, die internet. I want to be able to see my friends instead of having to chat with them while they spend hours playing World of Warcraft. I like radio, television and new movies. There’s no substitute for a newspaper in your hand–take that laptop with you in the crapper to read the news? Forget it.