• Information Week, Friday, September 5, 2008 11 AM

For years, stories have emerged claiming that the Web is heading for a massive traffic jam, but a report released Wednesday aims to dispel that notion. According to TeleGeography Research, international Web traffic surged 53% last year -- but Internet capacity grew even faster, easing the burden on many Internet backbones.

"Broadband subscriber growth has been slowing since 2001, but the volume of traffic generated by each user (has) grown," said Alan Mauldin, TeleGeography's director of research. "Traffic growth is fueled by consumer demand for video, delivered via Web browsers, peer-to-peer services, or streaming protocols."

The study found that traffic grew 47% in the more-mature U.S. market compared to 112% in Central and Latin America. Because of the Latin American surge, traffic growth actually outpaced the deployment of new Internet bandwidth in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.

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