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Two stories in the news point to the growing stress the communication age is putting on our infrastructure.

According to ABI Research, cable providers could be approaching a crisis in capacity in their last-mile systems. As video on demand, online gaming and high definition television eat up more and more capacity, customers may find themselves on the slow end of a battle with their neighbors for packet priority. An analogy might be the line that would form at the only well in a neighborhood where everyone is putting in pools.

Others question whether the tubes of the internet's backbone are large enough to serve the dramatically increasing call on them. Total capacity usage is roughly doubling every two years. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) estimates it will reach almost 8 million terabytes per month by 2011.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) quotes an analyst at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as speculating the internet could be approaching its capacity, although this is not a widely accepted view. Some are concerned the providers of that architecture may not have sufficient monetary incentive to make the investments necessary to keep the electrons flowing unimpeded. Of course, they suggest that everyone enjoying the use of the system should kick back a little monetary love for the access.

We also are witnessing wrestling matches over the increasingly-crowded prime frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. As companies such as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) vie for the soon-to-be-abandoned television frequencies so they can jump into wireless internet access, cellular providers like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) lust after them to reduce the cost of network maintenance and expand their package of products.

We'll keep you up to date on these issues; while arcane, they could have huge implications on the business models of today's top technology stocks.