Olympic Games: Can the Internet cope?

The 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London will put unprecedented demand on Internet bandwidth according to the BBC.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have warned local businesses and home users about reduced connection speeds as thousands are expected to stream Olympic Games events live over the Internet.

Mobile data providers are also concerned about the demands on their networks (though with roaming data charges as high as they are, operators are surely rubbing their hands together in glee at the potential profits). 25 additional phone masts have been installed in the Olympic venues to cope with the demand, with operator O2 spending £50 million on Olympic preparations.

Individual organisations are also worried: the BBC expects thousands of attempts to stream events live from its web site, prompting fears that its servers will not be able to meet demand. It is preparing for loads as high as 1 terabit (128 gigabytes) per second.