Scientist issues internet rationing warning

Britain's demand for broadband could lead to internet rationing in the future, BT has warned.

Andrew Ellis, professor of optical communications at Aston University, claimed that the country's entire power supply could be used up by people going online by 2035.

He told the Royal Society that data transmission is already using up between eight and 16 per cent of the country's electricity, reports the Sunday Times.

Professor Ellis pointed out this demand is still rising, even though current levels of internet usage are already equivalent to the output of three nuclear power stations.

He said: "It is growing so fast, currently at an exponential rate, that, in theory, it could be using all the UK power generation by 2035. We cannot make all that extra power, so we will have to restrict or reduce access, perhaps by metering consumers so they pay for what they use."

Andrew Lord, head of optical access at BT, added that internet rationing is one possible solution to this problem in the future. Under the solution, companies and households would have to pay for their data usage when they go online.

Mr Lord warned that optical fibres cannot be expanded much more to send extra data and it does not seem feasible to lay enough new cables to meet demand due to economics.

"New cables laid now could fill in a year or two of being installed, which is far too short," he said. "If we don’t fix this then in ten years time the internet could have to cost more."

Among the reasons for the sudden boom in the usage of the internet is the rise of online video, which is growing at between 25 and 30 per cent a year.

Companies using online video on their business broadband connections are likely to be using a lot of data and in the long term this could start to cost their business communications systems more money to run.