The internet could soon be replaced by a lightning-fast service known as the "grid", which is 10,000 times faster than existing broadband networks.


Scientists from Cern, the particle physics laboratories in Switzerland where the web was first developed, are working on the next-generation service which would allow films and music catalogues to be downloaded within seconds.


David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a key figure in the grid project, said grid technology could change society.


"With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine," said Prof Britton.


The grid will be activated this summer at the same time as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new particle accelerator designed to investigate how the universe began, is switched on.


The grid, which has been built from modern fibre-optic cables, is already installed on 55,000 servers, a figure which is expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.


Britain has 8,000 of these servers meaning access could be available to universities as early as this autumn.

Ofcourse people won't abuse this
Awesome thier doing this, but now people might use thier broadband limit faster
-Ming

If its in Glasgow University at the moment then I would estimate it is still at least 5 possibly 10 years away from being available to the general public in masses at a accessible prices. Look at Fiber-optic communications, they started in the 70s, and yet are only just becoming publicly available, and its not going to be until atleast 2010 until it is available to the masses at a reasonable price.

Still, it is a good development, and definitely a worthwhile experiment.

Yeah thats a major problem. The ISP companies are unwilling to spend money upgrading the copper wires to fibre optics. As a result, super fast connections are still a long way away.

To tell you the truth, I don't think we need really anything faster. I mean, I wouldn't say no, but still. I don't pay that much for my internet/phone bill a month and still get "near instant" fast internet.

Still, it would be cool to see just how fast everything could be.

Its not really the ISP companies, its BT. They can spend a huge amoutn of money upgrading their lines to fibre optics, but then most of their competitors get access to it - as they use BT's lines.

The best thing that can be done is the government spending the £15 billion needed to upgrade the whole country. Sure its alot, but Crossrail is costing £16 billion and is only going to benefit London and the surrounding area, so I am sure the government can afford £15 billion to benefit the whole country.

I've heard about this, and won't the people who own film companies get very angry about it if people can download 3 films in a minute...? The whole concept is a good idea, though.

So, this sort of internet will replace this one?
Then many sites will be destroyed.
Like, sites that is old, but online,
will the new one overwrite the old? (or will all the old internet get transfered?)
Lucky that its in many years xD
Where the *peep* is the internet stored...?

What they should do, is embrace this technology and sell films online, at a reasonable price. If I could buy a DVD which costs £11.99 for half the price, as download only (so they don't have to pay for shipping, case or the physical disc), I would purchase DVDs more frequently. At the moment, I can't justify spending the money on one DVD, unless I really want the film.

This isn't a new internet. This is effectively upgrading the 'cable' to make it faster. No sites will be destroyed, the internet will not be overwritten or change, just the medium.

I'll give you a very quick and simple explanation of the internet.

The internet isn't stored in one place. It is stored in special computers all around the world, called servers. Everything which is connected to the internet is given an IP address. This is something like 183.165.345.459. All the computers in the world are connected through cables and optical fibres and other method of communication. When you type 'google.com' into your web browser, a DNS server tells your PC the IP address of google.com, eg Google's server, and your computer can then find where it is on the internet and display the website.

That is very simplistic, but should give you an understand.

With so many other operations going on (2012 Olympics, Crossrail, Improving London Transport System, etc.) it's not going to be a question of money (London Government has got tons of it ) It's going to be more of 'How we are going to do it, where are we going to put the mainframe stuff' that sort of stuff.

~Voo Doo10