Post date: Mar 21, 2012 12:10:05 AM
Cisco published their 2012 Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast in Feb. 14th. Full report is available here: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html
The mobile traffic trends are surpassing expectations, for the fourth year in a row, thanks to tablets and smartphones. Great news for small cells and heterogeneous networks!
Executive Summary
The Mobile Network in 2011 and 2012:
Global mobile data traffic grew 2.3-fold in 2011, more than doubling for the fourth year in a row. The 2011 mobile data traffic growth rate was higher than anticipated. Last year's forecast projected that the growth rate would be 131 percent. This year's estimate is that global mobile data traffic grew 133 percent in 2011.
Last year's mobile data traffic was eight times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Global mobile data traffic in 2011 (597 petabytes per month) was over eight times greater than the total global Internet traffic in 2000 (75 petabytes per month).
Mobile video traffic exceeded 50 percent for the first time in 2011. Mobile video traffic was 52 percent of traffic by the end of 2011.
The Mobile Network Through 2016:
Mobile data traffic will reach the following milestones within the next five years.
• Monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes in 2016.
• Over 100 million smartphone users will belong to the "gigabyte club" (over 1 GB per month) by 2012.
• The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world's population in 2012.
• The average mobile connection speed will surpass 1 Mbps in 2014.
• Due to increased usage on smartphones, handsets will exceed 50 percent of mobile data traffic in 2014.
• Monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes in 2016.
• Monthly mobile tablet traffic will surpass 1 exabyte per month in 2016.
• Tablets will exceed 10 percent of global mobile data traffic in 2016.
• China will exceed 10 percent of global mobile data traffic in 2016.