Serious web surfers love their connections fast. That does not require any explanation; who would want to download a 1.2 GB DVD video on a slow dialup connection? That download can take days to complete.

More and more people are becoming very reliant on the Internet for their data, whatever form it takes. We have e-books, music files, videos, PDFs, software and all kinds of stuff available on the Internet, downloadable for whoever wants them. But can you imagine a day when the Internet finally melts down because of all this data traveling through cyberspace and everything just slows down? According Nemertes Research, which is a US-based analyst firm, that day when the Internet melts down, is due to happen on 2010.

Oh, yeah. The Internet will be incapable of accommodating consumer demand for bandwidth by the year 2010, says Nemertes Research. As BBC reported here, Nemertes Research forecasts that this Internet meltdown will cause people to lose the speed and convenience that they are now perhaps taking for granted when doing their online transactions. Online purchases will need to be verified at least twice, and downloading videos from YouTube will take twice as slow.

But that is not all the bad news that Nemertes Research has up its sleeve. The analyst firm says that this Internet meltdown will prevent companies that would like to emulate Google and YouTube to successfully take off, unless they have the money for the necessary infrastructure. So we would be stuck with monoliths like Google and YouTube, and innovation would be on a bare minimum.

What is the solution that will prevent this Internet meltdown? Nemertes Research says that broadband networks all over the world will need to upgrade their systems. This endeavor will cost the industry some US$137B.

So, do we like our Internet connection fast? Maybe we should enjoy it while we can.