The Oncoming Data Traffic Explosion

The Report Highlighted That 5G Will Account for 1.5% of Total Mobile Data Traffic by 2021, and Will Generate 4.7 Times More Traffic Than the Average 4G Connection With the Proliferation of IoT, Live Mobile Video, Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications.

- Ramesh Kumar Raja

Global mobile data traffic will shoot up seven-fold by 2021 and by this time more people on our planet will be using mobile phones (5.5 billion) than bank accounts (5.4 billion), having access to running water (5.3 billion) or landlines (2.9 billion), according to the 11th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global mobile Data Traffic forecast (2016 to 2021). Strong growth in mobile users, smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) connections as well as network speed improvements and mobile video consumption are projected to increase mobile data traffic seven-fold over the next five years.

The explosion of mobile applications and adoption of mobile connectivity by end users is fueling the growth of 4G, soon to be followed by 5G growth. Cisco and industry experts anticipate large scale deployments of 5G infrastructures to begin by 2020. Mobile carriers will need the innovative speed, low latency, and dynamic provisioning capabilities that 5G networks are expected to deliver to address not just increasing subscriber demands but also new services trends across mobile, residential, and business markets. Cisco forecasts that 5G will account for 1.5 percent of total mobile data traffic by 2021, and will generate 4.7 times more traffic than the average 4G connection and 10.7 times more traffic than the average 3G connection.