Much ado about nothing: Internet CAN take video strain says UK study

These conclusions might come as a disappointment to carriers pushing for tiered services and even cost sharing - over and above the normal costs of connecting to the Internet - with content providers.

They've been pushing for change to the way the Internet is funded, in part to 'cope' with the rise in video traffic. Here's the basic thrust of their argument.

The infrastructure players claim new business models will be required to cope with the 'exaflood' of traffic, or the Internet will grind to a halt.  And they point to an explosion of video traffic ignited by applications such as (in the UK) the BBC's iPlayer, one of an increasing number of services which allow viewers to download radio and TV programmes. These services, ISPs and telcos complain, are increasing congestion and traffic management problems on the Internet.

What is needed, they say, are new business models which will enable them to share in the revenue generated by services which run 'over the top' and therefore allow them to confidently invest in the network infrastructure for a reasonable return. Just driving revenue through flat-rate connection (from both users and service providers) won't be enough to fund the capacity and enhanced management the Internet will require, they claim.

Ideally, they want new business models to be developed which would allow ISPs to tier traffic and therefore to charge extra for particular types of content delivered.

Internet neutrality advocates, on the other hand, reject this analysis. They say the Internet model isn't broken and maintaining neutrality is key to continued services innovation.