14 DAY TRIAL // Online video is already one of the biggest traffic generators on the Internet today and it is about to become a lot bigger in the coming years according to a new study by UK research firm Coda. It estimates that video traffic will increase exponentially in the next eight years, reaching 1.3 exabytes per month by 2017 and this is just for mobile broadband.
In 2009, mobile broadband traffic will add up to just 44,000 terabytes per month but that number is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59 percent reaching 1.8 exabytes per month in eight years. The number is expected to pick up after 2012 when mobile Internet technologies like Long Time Evolution (LTE) start to offer significantly more bandwidth. By 2013, 80 percent of the world's broadband connections, around three billion by that time, will be mobile.
Video traffic will make up three quarters of all mobile broadband traffic, or 1.3 exabytes, by 2017, with a CAGR of 64 percent, and Asian users will be the most avid consumers. The Asia Pacific region will make up 53 percent of the entire video traffic followed by Europe with 26 percent and North America with only 14 percent. One reason why there is such great imbalance in the distribution is because in the Asia Pacific region, mobile broadband will be much more widespread, being the only option for broadband Internet in some areas.
The study's authors believe that, in the short term, this increase in demand will lead to users being dissatisfied with the connection they are provided and it will be a while before network operators are able to have a solid offering. After this, LTE will add up to two thirds of global traffic via portables by 2017.