Get ready for internet gridlock according to a dire warning issued by a US analyst firm.

In an research paper, Nemertes said the limits of internet capacity will be reached by 2010, marking a stifling of innovation on the web.

For the study Nemertes performed an analysis of Internet and IP infrastructure, current and projected traffic, to estimate a point at which demand exceeds capacity.

"The next Google, YouTube, or Amazon might not arise, not because of a lack of demand, but due to an inability to fulfill that demand," Nemertes claims. "Rather like osteoporosis, the underinvestment in infrastructure will painlessly and invisibly leach competitiveness out of the economy."

The company concludes that although core fibre and switching and routing resources will scale to support virtually any conceivable user demand, internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate within the next three to five years.

Nemertes estimates the financial investment required by access providers to "bridge the gap" between demand and capacity ranges from $42 billion to $55 billion, or about 70 percent more than they currently plan to invest.

"It's important to stress that failing to make that investment will not cause the internet to collapse," Nemertes said. "Instead, the primary impact of the lack of investment will be to throttle innovation-both the technical innovation that leads to increasingly newer and better applications, and the business innovation that relies on those technical innovations and applications to generate value."

Still where the company predicts gloom and doom I see opportunity. I'm sure there are budding software and network designers working out faster and easier ways of getting the internet to digest all that data.

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The digital book revolution arrives? If you have a friend or a postal address in the US then you could become among the first in Bermuda to have access to Kindle, a new wireless reading device from Amazon.

I have always thought electronic books will be the future for readers. However the uptake has been slow due to a lack of consumer uptake, technical problems, and marketing.

Now Amazon has taken matters into its own hands, combined the perfect pitch for digital books by launching the $400 reading device.

For now however Kindle is only available in the US for now, with Amazon planning to release it worldwide soon. Demand has been so high that Amazon claims to have run out of stock. The device is based on an electronic display Amazon claims provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. The E-Ink display electronic paper display (described in a previous column last year) is designed to reflect light like ordinary paper and uses no backlighting (see www.eink.com).

This design eliminates the glare even if you read it in bright sunlight. Wireless connectivity allows readers to shop for books and download them directly from an online store. Kindle uses the same high-speed data network as advanced cell phones, avoiding the problem of having users first find a WiFi hotspot.

If you buy your Kindle in the US and bring it to Bermuda, you'll still be able to use it. Just download your books to your computer via the internet, then load them on to your Kindle.

Amazon has made 88,000 books available, with New York Times best sellers and all new releases priced at about $10. Newspapers and magazines, along with online blogs are also available via the device.

Weighing in at 10.3 ounces (lighter than an average paperback Amazon claims), the device can hold about 200 titles. What's more, each title you buy is stored on a personal space on the Amazon site, allowing you to reload books on to Kindle again, or to a computer.

This is a smart move, completely allowing readers to exchange books among each other, just as they would a paperback. Kindle can also hold any Word document and digital pictures.

The device also allows you to annotate your books, clip passages, and bookmark pages.

I can hardly wait to try one, though it will be a shame to give up my racks of books.

Contact Ahmed at elamin.ahmed[AT]gmail.com if you have any comments.