Cisco projects further growth in Internet traffic

By FREDRICK OBURA

NAIROBI, KENYA: Cisco has released internet forecast that projects growth in Africa’s Internet protocol (IP) traffic in the next three years.

The forecast says that in the Middle East and Africa, Internet Protocal (IP) traffic will grow 5-fold from 2012 to 2017 and the IP traffic in 2017 will be equivalent to 10 billion DVDs per year, 866 million DVDs per month, or 1 million DVDs per hour.

According to the new study, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will continue to be the fastest growing IP traffic region from 2012 – 2017 (5-fold growth, 38 per cent compound annual growth rate over the forecast period).

“The forecast once again showcases the seemingly insatiable demand for bandwidth around the globe and provides insights on the architectural considerations necessary to deliver on the ever-increasing experiences being delivered,” says Raphael Stanley, Regional Sales Manager.

“The growth projections for the Middle East and Africa demonstrate that the potential of the Internet is phenomenal, we will continue to innovate and transform our business to meet the demands of our customers in Kenya,” he said.

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Last year, the consumer Internet traffic grew 83 per cent and business Internet traffic grew 63 per cent in the same period.

In 2017, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross Middle East and Africa's IP networks every 2 hours.

10 per cent of consumer Internet traffic was mobile in 2012, and 31 per cent of consumer Internet traffic will be mobile in 2017 whilst 5 per cent of business Internet traffic was mobile in 2012, and 14 per cent of business Internet traffic will be mobile in 2017.

Regional and Country IP Traffic Projections

Asia-Pacific (APAC) will generate the most IP traffic by 2017 (43.4 exabytes/month), maintaining its leadership from last year.

The Middle East and Africa will continue to be the fastest growing IP traffic region from 2012 – 2017 (5-fold growth, 38 per cent CAGR over the forecast period); MEA was the fastest growing region last year as well (10-fold growth, 57 per cent CAGR for 2011 – 2016 forecast period) in this category.

By 2017, the highest traffic-generating countries will be the United States (37 exabytes per month) and China (18 exabytes per month).

For fastest growing IP traffic at the country-level, India will have the highest IP traffic growth rate with a 44 per cent CAGR from 2012 – 2017. Second is Indonesia (42 per cent CAGR) and third is South Africa (31 per cent CAGR) over the forecast period.