Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/13net.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Rather thant he internet hitting its IPv4 limits this article suggests that the Internet will implode due to the various forms of entertainment found on the internet. They bring up examples such as online gaming, streaming videos, and bandwidth heavy web-applications. But I think they assume that most people will start looking for more of these forms of entertainment and that worldwide bandwidth would be heavily affected by constantly downloading of these kinds of media...

I think rather than the Internet experiencing slower download speeds, ISPs and other internet originators/providers will face increase strain on their network resources. This might drive the ISPs to increase the cost of their services or force them to look for faster alternatives to satisfy their customer's needs. I believe that the US would benefit from internet connections that provide more bandwidth since it seems like the average US consumer likes to look for bandwidth extensive media like streaming videos. Hopefully ISPs start to adapt to these increasing demands on their networks and switch over to more powerful network infrastructures such as fiber optic networks like Verizon FIOS service provides.