• Chicago Tribune, Monday, February 26, 2007 10:45 AM

You wouldn't know it, but the world wide Web is bursting at the seams. Thanks to the proliferation of user-uploaded and professionally produced video, large chunks of bandwidth are being eaten up by a Web infrastructure that may be inadequate as rich content usage ramps up.

Like clogging arteries, the Web's pipes are headed for some serious blockage. Indeed, savvy Internet back-bone providers are starting to worry. "We don't see anything catastrophic near term, but over the next few years, there's this fundamental wall we're heading toward," said Pieter Poll, chief technology officer at Qwest Communications International.

Traffic volumes are growing at a much faster rate than computing power, meaning the production of newer, faster computers is being rapidly overshadowed by the increased demand from users for more. This could prove to be a crucial argument to those on the opposite side of the Net Neutrality debate. They argue that charging publishers for bandwidth usage would help finance an enhanced Web infrastructure, while forcing publishers to eliminate or at least cut back on some of the user-generated material that helps clogging the Web.

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