Internet traffic to quadruple by 2015: Cisco

Considering
the momentum of the growth of Internet use, the total global Internet
traffic will quadruple by 2015, says Cisco. The company's fifth
annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, predicted almost 3 bn
people, which would be more than 40% of the world population by 2015,
will be using the Internet and the traffic will grow to 966 exabytes
per year. The study also said there will be 15 bn network-connected
devices, about two per person worldwide.

“We are
indeed on the threshold of the 'zettabyte era',” said Suraj Shetty,
VP, Cisco, who wrote a blog on the study. The study also said that by
2015, the traffic equivalent of all the movies ever made will cross
the Internet every 5 minutes, and 1 mn minutes of video content will
cross the global network every second.

It said
global IP traffic would hit 80.5 exabytes per month by 2015, up from
20.2 exabytes per month in 2010, and that the Asia Pacific region
would generate the most IP traffic by 2015 at 24.1 exabytes per month
thus surpassing the North America region. The Middle East and Africa
are expected to be the fastest-growing regions for IP traffic during
the period.

Wi-Fi to
surpass broadband

Cisco also
predicted that Wi-Fi traffic, connecting devices including tablets,
would surpass fixed broadband traffic in 2015. “The explosive
growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an
opportunity for optimizing and monetizing visual, virtual and mobile
Internet experiences,” added Shetty.

PCs,
Tablets, smartphones

While PCs
generated 97% of consumer Internet traffic last year, the share would
drop to 87% in the next four years as more people turn to
smartphones, Tablets, and Web-enabled televisions, the study said.
Online video traffic, including data rich 3-D and HD transmissions,
was projected to be 14 times greater in 2015 compared to last year.
Mobile data traffic was expected to increase by a magnitude of 26
times in the same period.

According to
Cisco, there are four things that drive this rapid growth-increase
in connected devices such as Tablets and smartphones, greater number
of Internet users, faster broadband speed, with average fixed
broadband speed hitting 28 Mbps by 2015, and the growth in video
content, which would account for 1 mn minutes of Internet traffic
every second by 2015.