Goodbye voice – Hello data
Akamai’s Q4 2016 State of the Internet report shows huge growth in mobile data traffic over the past few years, while voice traffic is almost flat.
The report uses insight from mobile vendor Ericsson, which has a presence in over 180 countries and a customer base representing more than 1,000 networks.
The result is a base for calculating world total mobile traffic on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks.
The graph below shows global data and voice traffic over the past five years.
The growth in data traffic is being driven by increased smartphone usage and a continued increase in average data volume per user – fueled primarily by increased viewing of video content.
In Q4 2016, data traffic grew more than 13% quarter-over-quarter – and more than 54% year-over-year.
Looking at the five-year period, cumulative voice traffic growth was 31%, while cumulative data traffic growth was over 1,200%.
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