Comcast Corp. is scared of the H1N1 in more than one way. Besides contracting the disease and employees calling out sick, they are fearful for their 14 million high speed internet subscribers. Like many corporations Comcast is trying to stop the spread of the H1N1 they have made sure there is a hand sanitizer on the desk of each employee.
Comcast fears the fact that there will be large numbers of employees and student’s absent from school and work; these people will be home and most likely surfing the web. Downloading games and videos which take up a lot of space and time may be very hard on the internet when so many will be doing this at the same time. Something Comcast is not ready for.
A government report warned that this may have a high possibility of happening. On October 26th the Government Accountability Office reported that the internet could begin to slow down dramatically if workers absenteeism reached 40 percent – a reasonable speculation for severe flu outbreak, the report said.
This could all lead to a sever internet meltdown, things that are important to the economy, such as online banking, stock trading and credit card payments might come to a screeching halt.
The estimate that the Government Accountability Office reported of 40 percent has never been seen so really it is anyone’s guess to how the internet may react but many people are thinking this will not be something positive.
If the many students and employees and unemployed are at home surfing the web and it becomes overly congested and slow the Government themselves will most likely have issues getting information about the pandemic itself over the internet.
The hope is that the flu will infect different areas of the nation, at different times. This hope is so that not everyone will be at home on the internet all at once.
The government report notes that in an emergency authorities could seek to shut down video-sharing Web sites to ease Internet congestion.
By Kate Kiselka follow me on Twitter
Posted by castercomm 
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