Internet could face capacity crunch experts warn

The internet could face a 'capacity crunch' as it has failed to keep up with demand for faster data, scientists warn.

Leading engineers, physicists and telecoms firms would be meeting at London's Royal Society later this month to discuss what could be done to avert a web crisis.

With the booming internet television, streaming services and other online devices, the strain on the communications infrastructure has been increasing.

According to experts, the cables and fibre optics that send information to our laptops, smartphones and tablets would reach their capacity within eight years.

If current usage rates continued, in only 20 years all of the UK's power supply could end up  consumed by internet usage.

Engineers had so far been able to outpace the demand by increasing internet speeds 50-fold in the last decade alone.

According to experts, science had reached its limit and fibre optics could no longer take more data from a single optical fibre.

Though internet companies would add more cable, that would entail higher bills.

Experts point out that users would need to pay double or would have to put up with an internet that switched off from time to time.

The strain on the network could be reduced by setting up large 'server farms' to store information rather than transferring it.

Experts say, with devices such as PCs and TVs included, internet transmission already accounted for between 8 and 16 per cent of the UK's power consumption.

According to Andrew Ellis, professor of optical communications at Aston University, rationing internet use or installation of additional cables might need to be considered.

Ellis said since the modem first appeared, the capacity people had been able to achieve had growm exponentially, doubling every two years.

He added it would not be possible to get more capacity in one fibre and there had been signs slowing since 2010.

According to Ellis, the major telecom operators alone accounted for national energy consumption equivalent to the output of three nuclear power stations.