The anti-social network: avoiding online darkness

The future of networks is causing sleepless nights for IT professionals and policy makers alike. The appetite for data across the globe is growing at an extraordinary rate and is putting an immense strain on the system.

"A lot of the basis of the internet today was invented 30 years ago," says Tim Fritzley, InTune Networks chief executive. "In the 90's when people were envisioning the first part of the web even the most optimistic soothsayer never saw anything like social networking." "They didn't see 10% of what is going on now," he says.

InTune is working with the Irish government on its Exemplar Network. This aims to vastly increase network capability worldwide by enabling a single strand of fibre to carry not just one signal from one operator, but data from up to 80 telecoms and TV companies at once. Developers are working furiously to make sure our increasing hunger for data does not mean a collapse of the system. But whether this will protect users from marauding pensioners looking for copper remains to be seen.

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