The Internet's Doomsday Scenario

The Internet's Doomsday Scenario

by Thomas E. Weber Info

Thomas E. Weber covers technology for The Daily Beast. He is a former bureau chief and columnist at The Wall Street Journal and was editor of the award-winning SmartMoney.com. Follow him on Twitter.

It sounds far-fetched, but a crisis with the potential to close off the Internet is imminent. The Daily Beast's Thomas E. Weber on the doomsday scenario you haven't heard about.

There’s a crisis brewing on the Internet, but because it involves the arcane inner workings of the Web, chances are you haven’t heard about it. It’s quite real, and it’s hotly debated at obscure conferences and among those whose job it is to keep the networks running smoothly.

Here’s the predicament: The Internet is running out of room. Fast.

Imagine that sometime soon, you were to move to a new house and call up the cable company to sign up for broadband Internet access, and they were to respond, “Sorry, we can’t right now, we’re sold out.â€