Fergie's Tech Blog

Internet Undergoes Covert Changes As ISPs Struggle With Demands Of Video

An AP newswire article, via CBS News, reports that:

In 1995, the first warning was raised: The throngs of people swarming to the Internet would overwhelm the system in 1996. For more than a decade, that fear has proven untrue.

Until right about now. The growing popularity of video on the Net has driven a traffic increase that's putting strains on service providers, particularly cable companies. To deal with it, they have had to change the way they convey Internet data.

And they've done this in secret, raising concerns - by Web companies, consumer groups and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission - that the nature of the Internet is being altered in ways that are difficult to divine.

posted by Fergie @ 2/11/2008 06:53:00 PM