The sky is falling, the popular press says. The Internet is browning out. You don't have to look far for proof of the Internet's imminent demise.

Pundits making dire predictions aren't always on intimate terms with the Internet's underlying architecture.

Having enough bandwidth obviously is a major issue in Internet growth. To keep up with customer demand, providers like Uunet started ordering lines farther in advance. This is competition at play, not a collapse.

The biggest Internet backbone providers have started exchanging traffic directly with each other to avoid the crowded peering points altogether. Rather than coming up with complex payment schemes to handle each other's traffic, they're working on a "if you'll take mine, I'll take yours" model.

"This really is a great approach for everybody."

If you're used to the telecommunications model where carriers pay each other to handle their traffic, the private peering arrangements seem shockingly unstructured. Some telecommunications companies would be more comfortable if someone was in charge of the Internet to bring it order and organization.