The Coming Trans-Atlantic Bandwidth Crunch [GigaOM]
While our government debates the availability of broadband in local communities throughout the U. S., GigaOM reports on a bandwidth shortage in another cable industry - the undersea, trans-Atlantic cable industry. A new report from research firm TeleGeography has revealed that by 2014, all the existing bandwidth on trans-Atlantic cables will be consumed. The firm is predicting that between now and then, bandwidth requirements between the U.S. and Europe will grow by 33 percent, exhausting the current capacity of the connections. The situation unfolding in Iran which, due to a crackdown on conventional media by the government, is a perfect example of why it is critical to maintain ample international broadband capacity. Without it, the world would have no idea what was really going on there.
The report indicates how one part of the Internet's backbone is likely to suffer from a traffic crunch unless undersea cable construction ramps up in the next few years. Due to the potential for a bandwidth shortage, the possibility exists that wholesale data rates will increase as cable builders begin work to lay more cable. By the year 2015, TeleGeography estimates that trans-Atlantic bandwidth needs will eclipse 60 terrabits per second.
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