SA Internet traffic set to quadruple: Cisco

Cisco’s Visual Networking Index projects that there will be more than 133 million network connections in South Africa by 2017.

The networking group projects that South Africa’s Internet protocol (IP) traffic will quadruple between 2012 and 2017 at a compound annual growth rate of 31%.

South Africa’s IP traffic (fixed and mobile) is expected to reach an annual run rate of 6.1 exabytes petabytes, almost 6.55 billion gigabytes per year – by 2017.

Put into context, 6.1 exabytes is equivalent to 2 billion DVDs per year, 128 million DVDs per month, or 174,939 DVDs per hour.

On a monthly basis, IP traffic is expected to reach 511 petabytes per month by 2017, up from 131 petabytes per month in 2012.

The VNI also forecasts for South Africa:

• More Devices/Connections – By 2017, there will be more than 133 million network connections in South Africa (fixed/mobile personal devices, M2M connections, et al.);
• Faster Fixed Broadband Network Speeds – In South Africa, the average fixed broadband speed will increase 2.3-fold from 2012 – 2017, from 2.5 Mbps to 6 Mbps;
• In South Africa, the average fixed broadband speed grew 28% from 2011 – 2012, from 2.0 Mbps to 2.5 Mbps;
• Increased Use of Video Services/Applications – In South Africa, 38 billion minutes (72,436 years) of video content will cross the Internet each month in 2017;
•  By 2017 the non-PC share of Internet traffic will grow to 20%.

As global service providers build out the next generation Internet, nearly half of the world’s population will have network and Internet access by 2017, Cisco said.

The average Internet household (globally) will generate 74.5 gigabytes per month. By comparison, in 2012, the average Internet household generated 31.6 gigabytes of traffic per month.

The group forecasts that globally, M2M connections will grow three-fold from two billion in 2012 to six billion by 2017.

Annual global M2M IP traffic will grow 20-fold over this same period—from 197 petabytes in 2012 (0.5% of global IP traffic) to 3.9 exabytes by 2017 (three % of global IP traffic).

Applications such as video surveillance, smart meters, asset/package tracking, chipped pets/livestock, digital health monitors and a host of other next-generation M2M services are driving this growth.

More on Cisco

Cisco to cut 4,000 jobs as demand slows

How SA operators can save 27% in infrastructure costs

Cisco beats investor expectations