Akamai Anticipates Record Internet Traffic During World Cup (AKAM)

Akamai Technologies AKAM has beefed up its network capacity in anticipation of record internet traffic during the World Cup, according to the AP. Akamai believes the World Cup's global popularity, combined with the increased availability of internet access and viewer appetite for ever-higher video quality are the main drivers. From the article: "For the past year, Akamai Technologies Inc., which delivers about 20 percent of the world's Internet traffic, has been building its capability in anticipation of the World Cup. It expects traffic to be two or three times as heavy as what was measured during President Barack Obama's inauguration -- thus far, the high point for traffic volume at about 1 terabit, or 1 trillion bits of data, per second. (Higher-quality video is also a major factor in boosting volume.) It could well be another watershed event in terms of people understanding what is now possible to do with video online," Akamai Chief Scientist Tom Leighton said. "This will draw a lot of people at once and that will cause people to be aware en masse that, hey, you can do some very cool things with video online that you can't even do with broadcast right now."