IoT Boom and Video Content to Fuel Surge in IP Traffic

Cisco predicts that global IP traffic will grow by 22% every year between now and 2020, more than doubling from this just over 1 zettabyte (ZB; 1000 exabytes) this year to 2.3 ZB by the end of the decade. This means it will have increased by almost 100 times from 2005. Wireless and mobile devices will be generating around two-thirds of all IP traffic by that time. Video will be the biggest growth driver, accounting for nearly 80% of data traffic by 2020.

The latest Cisco Visual Network Index also predicts that 10 billion new devices come online over the next five years. By 2020, the number of IoT connected devices will have grown from 4.9 billion last year to 12.2 billion, and represent 46% of all connected devices. Health will be the fastest-growing segment, forecast to rise from 144 million devices to 729 million by 2020.

The total number of networked devices in the UK will double, from 368 million in 2015 to 660 million by 2020, with IoT devices accounting for 53%. The average UK Internet user will then be consuming 93.9GB of traffic per month, up from 40GB per month in 2015.