By: Brindaveni Naidoo
3rd October 2011

Internet Protocol (IP) traffic in South Africa would grow sevenfold from 2010 to 2015, representing a 46% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), Cisco Systems VP for global technology policy Dr Robert Pepper said on Monday.

The statistics form part of the yearly Visual Networking Index Forecast for 2010 to 2015, where the methodology rests on a combination of analyst projections, in-house estimates and forecasts and direct data collection.

This is in comparison to global IP traffic, which has increased eightfold over the past 5 years, and would increase fourfold over the next five years, growing at a CAGR of 32% from 2010 to 2015.

Annual global IP traffic will reach the zettabyte threshold (966 exabytes or nearly 1 zettabyte) by the end of 2015. In 2015, global IP traffic will reach 966 exabytes a year or 80.5 exabytes a month.

Speaking at the International Institute of Communications conference, held in Johannesburg, Pepper added that the average Internet user in South Africa would generate 20 GB of traffic by 2015, representing a CAGR of 63%.

Further, Internet video traffic would grow by 87% in 2015, up from 45% in 2010. This represents an increase in video users from 1.8-million in 2010 to about 4-million in 2015.

The growth in video traffic, he said, would also drive the demand for broadband in South Africa, which is expected to jump by some 15% by 2015.

This growth in South Africa, Pepper explained, would result in serious implications for broadcasters, requiring strategic thinking and planning from the country's networks to deal with this growth, as well as spectrum for wireless broadband, both licensed and unlicensed.

Edited by: Mariaan Webb

Source: Engineering News