said by exocet_cm
:I would think, and hope, that these companies have been preparing for the rush of digital shoppers since the previous holiday season. Co-lo business servers, even temporarily, increasing the pipe to these businesses, etc... would help solve the problem in my opinion.
They got burnt last year because so many people waited until the last week or two before Christmas to shop. And then the sites got flooded with a last minute barrage of customers. The key to providing the bandwidth without costing them an arm and leg the rest of the year is to get what bandwidth they need on a short term contract. But the bandwidth providers will charge much much more for a short term deal. So, it is a balancing act of getting more bandwidth without running up their costs for a long period of time when it isn't needed.