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LONDON (AP) As Usain Bolt races down the Olympic track, will London's Internet infrastructure be able to keep up?

Let's hope so.

Experts say the network should be able to cope but they warned of sluggishness during peak times and said an unexpected surge could easily push the system over the edge.

British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Hunt has predicted that the 2012 Olympics will be the "Twitter Games," and those responsible for London's network of fiber optic cables, phone masts and Wi-Fi hotspots are bracing for a data deluge as the events get under way.

"There is the potential for a massive hit on the infrastructure," James Blessing of Britain's Internet Service Providers Association said.

Mobile company Vodafone said it also expected a data tsunami, saying "this summer it's going to be the equivalent of England playing in the World Cup final on Christmas Day, every day for the 17 days of the games."

Network engineers face a one-two punch: One is the influx of smartphone-wielding spectators, many eagerly updating their Facebook status from the Olympic Stadium or keeping up with the medal tally on Twitter. The second is unprecedented flow of video being streamed live to the Internet by Britain's national broadcaster, the BBC.

The combination has the potential to snarl Internet traffic. Olympic planners have already told London businesses to prepare for sluggish service during the games or even interruptions "in very severe cases." Data rationing remains an option, even if those involved played down the possibility.

Nationally, one of the biggest contributors to the Internet surge is expected to be the BBC, which plans to provide live coverage from up to 24 locations besides its three main channels of edited content. The broadcaster predicts that the footage, streamed to computers across Britain, will help generate a terabit (1 trillion bits) per second of traffic at peak times the equivalent of 1,500 people downloading a feature-length DVD-quality movie every minute.

"It's between five and 10 times their normal output," Blessing said.

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Olympics to strain UK Internet infrastructure