Internet 'on brink of collapsing'

The Internet is in danger of collapse under the sheer weight of its users, experts have warned.

It is already stretched to breaking point and is likely to buckle as more people from developing countries sign on, it was claimed.

'The Web was never meant to cope with the volume of users and data traffic seen today,' said Patrick Gelsinger, chief technology officer for Intel. 'We're running up on some architectural limitations.'

But he added disaster could be averted by building a better network on top of the old one, which is based on technologies developed in the 1970s.

The new Web would be more flexible and more effective at monitoring users and fighting security threats.

Mr Gelsinger told his firm's technical conference in San Francisco that such a model existed in the form of a system called PlanetLab - a collection of 429 computer nodes in 181 sites around the world.

Other firms including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and AT&T share his fears and are working to find a solution.

Rupert Goodwins, of online technology magazine ZDNet, said: 'The Web is now used by telecom firms, for music and video streaming, as well as TV and radio. It is just not able to keep up.'