IP: GROWING PAINS ON THE NET

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Some of the comments are insightful and some silly. I will leave it as an
exercise to the reader to say which is which djf


GROWING PAINS ON THE NET -- from Edupage


The inadvertent shutdown of America Online a few weeks ago was only the
beginning, say some industry observers, who predict that outages at
overburdened Internet providers will become more common in the future.
"Maybe for the first time in the history of the Internet, the demand is
exceeding the supply that technology can deliver," says the CEO of Advanced
Network & Services.  Because flat-rate pricing is the dominant Internet
service provider business model, there is no financial incentive to conserve
the resource, warns the executive VP of Nynex Science & Technology.  He
predicts that the Internet eventually will collapse under its own weight,
but will reemerge with "a lot more tollbooths on that highway than there are
now."  (Business Week 26 Aug 96 p62)