Cisco has published its Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption Report for 2013 to 2018. As per findings of the report, global broadband speeds are expected to increase from 16 Mbps in 2013 to 42 Mbps by 2018.
Further, majority of broadband connections, estimated at 55 per cent, will be faster than 10 Mbps by 2018. Average broadband speeds in Japan and South Korea will approach 100 Mbps by 2018. The report identifies online video to be the fastest growing residential internet service with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 per cent from 2013-2018, growing from 1.2 billion users in 2013 to 1.9 billion users by 2018. Meanwhile, mobile location-based services will be the fastest growing consumer mobile service with a CAGR of 36 per cent between 2013 and 2018, growing from 236 million users in 2013 to more than 1 billion users by 2018. Further, desktop and personal video-conferencing will be the fastest growing business internet service with a CAGR of 45 per cent between 2013 and 2018, growing from 37 million users in 2013 to 238 million users by 2018.
The key highlights of the report include:
The Asia-Pacific region will generate majority of the IP traffic by 2018, with 47.6 exabytes (36 per cent of the global IP traffic) per month.
The Middle East and Africa region will continue to be the fastest growing IP traffic region from 2013 to 2018 with a five-fold growth and a 38 per cent CAGR.
By 2018, the highest traffic-generating countries will be the United States with 37 exabytes per month and China with 18 exabytes per month.
The countries with the fastest IP traffic growth will be India with a 39 per cent CAGR from 2013 to 2018, followed by Indonesia with a 37 per cent CAGR.
With a view to capture new business opportunities offered by growing data usage, Cisco in the report has suggested that service provider networks must adapt to the increasing number of devices, such as tablets, smartphones and machine to machine (M2M) connections. These connections will need to be authenticated to access fixed/mobile networks with enhanced security and service prioritisation. The company also states that the evolution of advanced video services, such as high definition (HD) and ultra HD video, may create new bandwidth and scalability requirements for service providers. Residential, business and mobile consumers will continue to contribute to the strong demand for advanced video services across all network and device types with focus on quality of service, convenience, and price.
Further, the findings of the report underlines that continued business video adoption, such as HD and web-based video conferencing and business video-on-demand may lead to greater growth in network virtualisation and leveraging the internet for video transmission with network ramifications for service providers and over-the-top providers. Cisco concludes that 4G network growth and service adoption may grow faster as mobile users continue to demand similar service and content experiences from their fixed and mobile networks. Wi-Fi is going to become increasingly important in providing offload for mobile devices and connectivity for a growing array of portable devices and M2M connections.
