Worldwide mobile data traffic is expected to increase 26 times by 2015, driven primarily by smartphone and
tablet use, as well as consumers' increasing interest in watching videos on
mobile devices, Cisco Systems reported in a
Feb. 1 study.
Traffic will reach 6.3 exabytes -- the equivalent of
1 quintillion, or 10 to the 18th power -- per month within the next four years, according to the study.
The study -- said to offer Cisco customers, such as AT&T
and Verizon Wireless, information on trends in consumer mobile data use --
additionally predicts that by 2015, 5.6 billion personal devices will be
connected to mobile networks, along with 1.5 billion M2M
(machine-to-machine) nodes, and that mobile video will account for 66
percent of all mobile data traffic. Such an increase in mobile video viewing
would represent a 35-fold increase between 2010 and 2015 -- the
highest-ever growth rate of any mobile data application that Cisco tracked.
"The fact that global mobile data traffic increased 2.6-fold
from 2009 to 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row, confirms the strength
of the mobile Internet," Suraj Shetty, Cisco's vice president of worldwide
service provider marketing, said in a statement. "The seemingly endless bevy of
new mobile devices, combined with greater mobile broadband access, more
content, and applications of all types -- especially video -- are the key
catalysts driving this remarkable growth."
For more, read the eWeek article: Tablets, Smartphones, Video to Catapult Mobile Data Traffic: Cisco.
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