Global IP traffic to increase fourfold by 2016

Consumer video looks set to remain the key driver of global internet traffic in the coming years, with a report from Cisco predicting that there will be 1.5bn viewers of online video by 2016, up from 792 million in 2011.

Global IP traffic is expected to hit 1.3ZB per year or 110 exabytes per month by 2016 – nearly a fourfold increase from approximately 31EB per month in 2011.

Factors identified by the report as driving global broadband traffic growth and service penetration include: an increasing number of devices (with network connections nearly doubling to 18.9 billion by 2016), more internet users (reaching 3.4 billion by 2016), faster average broadband speeds (rising fourfold to 34Mbps), more video (reaching 1.2mn video minutes being transmitted every second) and growth in wifi.

The Asia Pacific Region is predicted to generate the most IP traffic (40.5EB per month) in 2016, ahead of North America (27.5EB per month). The fastest-growing regions for IP traffic in the forecast period are the Middle East and Africa (58 per cent CAGR) and Latin America (49 per cent CAGR).

By 2016, TVs are expected to account for over 6 percent of global consumer Internet traffic (up from four per cent in 2011), and 18 per cent of Internet video traffic (up from 7 per cent in 2011) – demonstrating the impact of web-enabled TVs as a viable online option for many consumers, according to Cisco.