Estimating the Exaflood: The Impact of Video and Rich Media on the Internet, a report released by the Discovery Institute estimates that by 2015 annual U.S. Internet and IP traffic will reach 1,000 exabytes, or one zettabyte, which is one million million billion bytes of data. According to the report, capacity in broadband access networks to homes and businesses must expand by a factor of between 10 and 100 over the next few years. New network investments expanding bandwidth, storage, and traffic management capabilities in the U.S. could total more than $100 billion in the next half-decade alone. Technology remains the key engine of U.S. economic growth and its competitive edge, the authors contend. Policies that encourage investment and innovation in our digital and communications sectors should be among America’s highest national priorities, they believe.

[SOURCE: tvnewsday ] via Benton