According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017, 4G/LTE connections accounted for 14 per cent of global mobile data traffic in 2012.
The report predicts that by 2017, 4G connections will account for 45 percent of mobile data traffic. In 2012, the average 4G connection generated 2.1 gigabytes of mobile data traffic per month, which is 19 times the 0.110 gigabytes/month for the average non-4G connection. By 2017, 4G traffic is expected to grow 40-fold at an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 109 per cent.
As per Cisco, in 2012, 2G supported 76 per cent of global mobile devices and machine to machine (M2M) connections. Out of these, 3G supported 23 per cent connections and 4G supported 1 per cent of connections. By 2017, 2G networks will support 33 per cent of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G networks will support 57 per cent connections; and 4G networks will support 10 per cent of M2M connections. Further, smartphones, laptops, and tablets will drive 93 per cent of global mobile data traffic by 2017.
The projected 2012 to 2017 global mobile data traffic increase by Cisco represents a CAGR of 66 per cent. In terms of mobile data traffic generation, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to generate the most. During 2012-2017, Cisco anticipates that mobile data traffic will outpace fixed data traffic by a factor of three.M2M traffic such as GPS systems in cars, asset tracking systems, medical applications, etc. will represent 5 per cent of mobile data traffic in 2017. Basic handsets will account for the remaining 2 per cent of mobile data traffic in 2017.
The key findings of the Cisco report were:
In 2012, 14 percent of all mobile-connected devices/connections (1 billion) were IPv6-capable.
By 2017, 41 per cent of all mobile-connected devices/connections (4.2 billion) will be IPv6-capable.
By 2017, there will be 5.2 billion mobile users (up from 4.3 billion in 2012).
By 2017, there will be more than 10 billion mobile devices/connections, including more than 1.7 billion M2M connections (up from 7 billion total mobile devices and M2M connections in 2012).
Average mobile network speeds will increase seven-fold from 2012 (0.5 Mbps) to 2017 (3.9 Mbps).
By 2017, mobile video will represent 66 per cent of mobile data traffic (up from 51 per cent in 2012).
In 2012, 33 percent of total mobile data traffic was offloaded (428 petabytes per month).
By 2017, 46 percent of total mobile data traffic will be offloaded (9.6 exabytes per month).
According to Cisco, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to witness the highest growth in mobile data traffic.
