Did you know that...?
- Global mobile data traffic will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 78% from 2011 to 2016, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month by 2016.
- In 2016, there will be 1.4 billion mobile-connected devices per capita, or more than 10 billion devices, including machine-to-machine (M2M) modules.
- Mobile network connection speeds will increase nine-fold from 2011 to 2016, rising from 189 kbps to 2.9 Mbps.
- Mobile video will generate more than 70% of all mobile data traffic in 2016, growing 25-fold from 2011 until then.
- The average smartphone will produce 2.6 GB of traffic per month in 2016, representing a 50-fold increase over 2011 (119% CAGR).
- Mobile-connected tablets will generate nearly as much traffic (1.1 exabytes per month) in 2016 as the entire global mobile network did in 2011 (1.3 exabytes per month).
- In 2016, mobile-connected tablets will account for more than 10% of all global mobile data traffic.
- Mobile users in China will generate more than 10% of all global mobile data traffic in 2016, compared with less than 5% in 2011.
- In 2016, 4G networks will claim 6% of all mobile connections but 36% of total traffic, with a 4G connection generating nine times more traffic on average than a non-4G connection.
- Across geographies, video is now the leading driver of total data traffic on mobile networks, at an average of 50%. In some networks, data volume due to video content is approaching 70%.
- Compared with 40% in the first quarter of 2011, this indicates an increase of 10 percentage points of video-driven data volume on mobile networks worldwide.
- The average Android tablet user generates twice the data volume produced by a comparable Android smartphone subscriber. The typical iPad user generates three times the data volume produced by a comparable iPhone subscriber.
- A five-minute video at 360 pixels (360p) resolution generates approximately 10-15 MB of data traffic on a mobile network.
- A five-minute video with high-definition quality on one of the latest LTE devices could generate as much as 75 MB of traffic – five times that of a 360p video.
Sources: Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011-2016 (February 14, 2012); Bytemobile Mobile Analytics Report (February 2012)
