The global mobile data traffic is anticipated to grow by 11 fold during by 2018 and reach 190exabytes per year in the following four years, a new Cisco report revealed.
According to Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2013 to 2018 report, the anticipated rise in mobile traffic is mainly contributed by increasing mobile Internet connections, which are expected to surpass 10 billion by 2018.
The report also added that the global mobile traffic growth would outpace global fixed traffic growth by a factor of three, with the number of mobile users reaching 4.9 billion and there will be over 10 billion mobile-ready devices/connections by 2018.
By the end of forecast period, average global mobile network speeds will nearly double to 2.5 Mbps and mobile video will capture 69%of global mobile data traffic.
Cisco Products and Solutions Marketing vice president Doug Webster said that global mobile data traffic will continue its truly remarkable growth, increasing nearly 11-fold over the next five years, to reach an amount in 2018 that is more than 57 times the total amount of mobile data traffic just a few years ago in 2010.
"Such growth is not only indicative of mobility becoming a critical characteristic of almost every network experience and the value consumers and businesses alike place on it, but it also represents the immense opportunities ahead for service providers who sit at the center of the Internet of Everything," Webster said.
The networking firm also anticipates that smartphones, laptops, and tablets will fuel 94% of global mobile data traffic and the M2M traffic will stand for 5% of global mobile data traffic by the forecast period.
In addition, mobile cloud traffic is anticipated to grow 12-fold, reporting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 64%.
Global wearable devices in use are anticipated to reach 176.9 million by 2018 from the already registered 21.7 million last year.
By the end of the forecast period, 4G connections will support 15% of all connections, and over half of global mobile traffic will be passed on onto Wi-Fi/small cell networks.
Mobile video topped the list of global data traffic, which is anticipated to account for 69% of global mobile traffic, followed by web and other data applications (17%), streaming audio (11%) and file sharing (3%).
Regionally, Middle East and Africa are anticipated to experience 14-fold regional CAGR (70%), followed by Central and Eastern Europe (68%), Asia-Pacific (67%), Latin America (66%), North America and Western Europe (50%).