Internet Traffic to Triple by 2020

In its latest global networking forecast, Cisco predicts Internet traffic will triple by 2020, which is really no surprise when you consider the Internet is still in its infancy.

The growth will be fueled by the addition of a billion new users—increasing from 3 billion in 2015 to 4.1 billion in 2020—and 10 billion new connected devices. The number of devices connected to the internet will jump from 16.3 billion to 26.3 billion. Looked at another way, devices per capita will grow from 2.2 devices in 2015 to 3.4 devices in 2020.

Video is forecast to account for 79 percent of global Internet traffic by 2020, up from 63 percent in 2015. Cisco predicts the world will reach 3 trillion Internet video minutes per month by 2020—the equivalent of 5 million years of video per month or about 1 million video minutes every second. HD and Ultra HD video is expected to make up 82 percent of Internet video traffic by 2020, up from 53 percent in 2015.

The Internet of Things (IoT) will play a key role in the global growth. So-called machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are predicted to grow nearly three-fold from 4.9 billion in 2015 to 12.2 billion by 2020, representing nearly half (46 percent) of all connected devices. The connected health segment, which includes digital health monitoring, is predicted to experience the fastest growth (five-fold) but the largest volume will come from smart home devices such as video surveillance systems and smart meters, which are forecast to grow from 2.4 billion in 2015 to 5.8 billion in 2020, accounting for nearly half of all M2M Internet connections by 2020.

As shown in the accompanying chart, global Internet traffic averaged 72.5 exabytes (1 billion gigabytes) per month in 2015 and is expected to grow to 194.4 exabytes by 2020. The global annual run rate will reach 2.3 zettabytes (1 trillion gigabytes) by 2020—up from 870 exabytes in 2015.

In case you’re wondering, 2.3 zettabytes is equivalent to 12 hours of streaming music per day of the year per capita or 33 hours of Ultra HD video streaming for each person on earth.

One more noteworthy prediction: By 2020, 71 percent of all Internet traffic will originate with non-PC devices including tablets, smartphones, and televisions, which compares with 47 percent in 2015. Looked at another way: Smartphones will generate 30 percent of all Internet traffic by 2020, while PC’s total traffic contribution drops to 29 percent.

COMMENTS
John Sully's picture

What a bunch of pikers. I have hardly anything hooked up in my apartment and I counted 10 devices connected to the internet, and I don't even have any home automation stuff yet!

Markoz's picture

Well, those of us who frequent this site are in a "special" category. A local paper featured a "modern family" - the article highlighted all the tech stuff they owned and was supposed to amaze the average reader. My wife complained, "We have way more electronic crap than they do." So, yeah, we are "special".

dnoonie's picture

I don't know how all this new stuff is going to function with the currently very bad options. My current service has become slow, sporadic and unreliable in the last 18 months (Centurylink Business). There appears to be no plan to correct the situation. Comcast/xfinity has had worse service than Centurylink in the past (in my area anyway) and 5G cellular is 2 to 4 years away, 5G cellular can't get here fast enough so I'm at a loss...I'm going to try Comcast again but VERY disappointed with my options.

welwer's picture

Cool!

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