Experts warn internet capacity will miss demand within two years

Consumer and corporate use of the internet could overload the current capacity and lead to brown-outs in two years unless backbone providers invest billions of dollars in new infrastructure, according to a study released Monday.

A flood of new video and other web content could overwhelm the internet by 2010 unless backbone providers invest up to $137bn in new capacity, more than double what service providers plan to invest, according to the Nemertes Research Group, an independent analysis firm. In North America alone, backbone investments of $42bn to $55bn will be needed in the next three to five years to keep up with demand, Nemertes said.