By 2021, the average broadband speed across the globe is predicted to be 53 Mbps – up from 27.5 Mbps in 2016, and 80 percent of internet traffic will be video, which is up from 67 percent in 2016. Those are some of the estimates from the just-released Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), which concludes digital transformation will continue to have a significant impact on the demands and requirements of IP networks. Over the forecast period, global IP traffic is expected to increase three-fold reaching an annual run rate of 3.3 zettabytes by 2021, up from an annual run rate of 1.2 zettabytes in 2016.
The VNI also projects a big increase in internet users from 2016-2021 − from 3.3 billion to 4.6 billion or 58 percent of the global population. Greater adoption of personal devices is also forecasted as the report suggests there’ll be 3.5 networked devices per person in 2021, which is a jump from 2.3 in 2016. Machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are predicted to go from 17.1 billion to 27.1 billion from 2016-2021. M2M connections supporting Internet of Things (IoT) applications are calculated to be more than half the total 27.1 billion devices and connections and will account for five percent of global IP traffic by 2021.
On the WiFi front, the report says WiFi and mobile-connected devices will generate 73 percent of internet traffic by 2021. It also predicts that globally, total public WiFi hotspots (including homespots) will grow six-fold from 94 million in 2016 to 541.6 million by 2021.
The VNI also offers a 4K TV forecast suggesting that by 2021, more than half (56 percent) of connected flat panel TV sets will be 4K, which is up from 15 percent in 2016. The report says installed/in-service 4K TV sets will increase from 85 million in 2016 to 663 million by 2021.
More information on the report is available here.