Cisco has recently released a report on Global Mobile Traffic Growth. Globally the average mobile user consumed 201 MB a month in 2012. In
Middle East and Africa region, we consumed 73 mb per month. By 2017, The Middle East and Africa will have the strongest mobile data traffic growth of any region at 77 percent CAGR increasing 17.3-fold over the forecast period.
Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012, and growth rates varied widely by region. North America consumed triple the amount of data compared to the Global Average. By 2017 a user in the Middle East and Africa region will be consuming close to 1 GB of mobile data per month.
According to Cisco, Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012. Global mobile data traffic reached 885 petabytes (1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte) per month at the end of 2012, up from 520 petabytes per month at the end of 2011. Cisco is projecting global mobile traffic will grow at compounded annual rate of 66 percent for the next five years, doubling 13 times by 2017
By 2017 monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes (1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte) in 2017. In Middle East and Africa mobile traffic is mostly dominate by Data. By 2016 Video will take over data. By 2016 mobile traffic in the region will by 6 times larger than 2012
The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world's population in 2013 and by 2017 10 billion mobile-connected devices. Monthly mobile tablet traffic will surpass 1 exabyte per month in 2017. In one our previous posts we said Tablets are the future for e-commerce. Tablets will exceed 10 percent of global mobile data traffic in 2015. The highest growth will be in tablets (CAGR of 46 percent) and M2M (CAGR of 36 percent).
The overall share of non-smartphones will decline from 75 percent of all mobile connections in 2012 to 50 percent in 2017. The biggest gain in smartphones (16 percent of all mobile connections in 2012 to 27 percent in 2017). While Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa will still show a low single digit growth for non-smartphones, all other regions will experience a decline.
Mobile data services are well on their way to becoming necessities for many network users. Mobile voice service is already considered a necessity by most, and mobile data, video, and TV services are fast becoming an essential part of consumers' lives. Cisco compiles its virtual networking index numbers through a combination of multiple independent analyst reports, direct measurements from its speed-test apps and metrics it collects from its operator customers.
