The Visual Networking Index (VNI) report by Cisco predicts that more traffic will be created in 2022 than in the 32 years since the internet started in 1984.
The latest Ericsson Mobility Report released in November 2018 said mobile data traffic in Q3 2018 grew 79 percent, the highest rate since 2013. Mobile data traffic will increase by a factor of five between 2018-2024. 5G networks will carry 25 percent of mobile traffic by the end of the period, Ericsson said today.
4.8 billion customers or 60 percent of the population will be internet users by 2022. In addition, 28 billion devices and connections will be online. Video will make up 82 percent of all IP traffic, Cisco said today.
Global IP traffic is expected to reach 396 exabytes per month by 2022, up from 122 exabytes per month in 2017.
The busiest hour of internet traffic will be six times more active than the average by 2022. Busy hour internet traffic will grow by nearly five times (37 percent CAGR) from 2017 to 2022, reaching 7.2 petabytes per second by 2022.
Average internet traffic will grow by nearly four times (30 percent CAGR) over the same period to reach 1 petabyte by 2022.
There will be 4.8 billion internet users by 2022 against 3.4 billion in 2017 or 45 percent of the world’s population.
There will be 28.5 billion fixed and mobile personal devices and connections by 2022, up from 18 billion in 2017—or 3.6 networked devices/connections per person, from 2.4 per person.
More than half of all devices and connections will be machine-to-machine by 2022, up from 34 percent in 2017. That’s 14.6 billion connections from smart speakers, fixtures, devices and everything else, up from 6.1 billion.
Average fixed broadband speeds will nearly double from 39 Mbps to 75.4 Mbps.
Average Wi-Fi connection speeds will more than double from 24.4 Mbps to 54 Mbps.
Average mobile connection speeds will more than triple from 8.7 Mbps to 28.5 Mbps.
IP video traffic will quadruple by 2022. IP video traffic will make up 82 percent of total IP traffic from 75 percent.
Gaming traffic is expected to grow nine-fold from 2017 to 2022. It will represent four percent of overall IP traffic in 2022.
Asia Pacific
Asia Pacific will achieve better growth in speed in fixed broadband, Wi-Fi and cellular connections, Cisco said.
Asia Pacific will generate 44 percent of all IP traffic by 2022. IP traffic growth in Asia Pacific will be 32 percent CAGR.
M2M Connections / IoT growth in Asia Pacific will be 18 percent CAGR. M2M traffic growth in Asia Pacific will be 49 percent CAGR.
Asia Pacific leads with 261 million (47 percent) Hotspots by 2022.
Average fixed broadband speed in Asia Pacific will grow from 46.2 Mbps in 2017 to 98.8 Mbps in 2022. Average fixed broadband speed in North America will grow from 43.2 Mbps in 2017 to 94.2 Mbps in 2022.
Average Wi-Fi speed in Asia Pacific will grow from 26.7 Mbps in 2017 to 63.3 Mbps in 2022. Average Wi-Fi speed in North America will grow from 37.1 Mbps in 2017 to 83.8 Mbps in 2022.
Average cellular speed in Asia Pacific will grow from 10.6 Mbps in 2017 to 28.8 Mbps in 2022. Average cellular speed in North America will grow from 16.3 Mbps in 2017 to 42 Mbps in 2022.
The reports from Cisco and Ericsson indicate that telecom operators need to make huge investment in networks to manage the growth in Internet traffic.
