Cisco: mobile data traffic to increase seven-fold by 2021

Thanks to continued growth in the number of mobile phone users, mobile video, 4G networks and the Internet of Things, global mobile data traffic should increase seven-fold from 2016 to 2021, according to a new report.

By 2021, mobile data traffic should represent 20 percent of total IP traffic, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast. That’s up from 8 percent of total IP traffic in 2016.

Global mobile data traffic is expected to reach 49 exabytes per month, or 587 exabytes annually, by 2021. That’s an annual run rate equivalent to 131 trillion images or to 13 trillion Youtube clips. It’s also 122 times more than all global mobile traffic generated in 2011. (MTI)