Traffic Jam: are we heading for an internet crunch? July 8, 2008

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With the proliferation of YouTube video content and the popularity of BBC iPlayer, is the internet in danger of overloading? Recent research by Comm Corp says that four-fifths of British internet users are now watching video via the web. Each user watched an average of six hours of online content in February 2008 – that is a total of three billion clips, half of which were on YouTube.

At the same time, BBC 1 is planning to air its content on iPlayer in real time, and soon a new joint venture between Channel 4, ITV and BBC Worldwide – known as ‘Kangaroo’ – will make TV content available online.

Can Britain’s current internet infrastructure cope with the demands of modern businesses and consumers? Will the proliferation of new forms of online content lead to a gradual decline in internet speeds? Should Britain update its entire broadband infrastructure to cope with increased content demands? And if so, who should pay for the upgrade – government or ISPs?

These issues and more will be interrogated at the debate ‘Traffic jam: are we heading for an internet crunch?’ at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in London at 7pm on 8 July. The debate will bring together representatives from ISPs, policymakers, academics, journalists and the interested public to discuss the future of the world wide web.

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