JEDDAH – Cisco's Visual Networking Index Projects 413 million total Internet users In Middle East and Africa (MEA) by 2017, noting that in the region, IP traffic will grow 5-fold from 2012 to 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 38 percent. The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast 2012-2017, projects that global Internet protocol (IP) traffic will grow three-fold between 2012 and 2017. MEA will continue to be the fastest growing IP traffic region from 2012-2017 (5-fold growth, 38 percent compound annual growth rate over the forecast period), it said. MEA was the fastest growing region last year as well (10-fold growth, 57 percent compound annual growth rate for 2011-2016 forecast period) in this category. According to the forecast, IP traffic in 2017 in the MEA will be equivalent to 10 billion DVDs per year, 866 million DVDs per month, or 1 million DVDs per hour. Consumer Internet traffic grew 83 percent in 2012 and business Internet traffic grew 63 percent in 2012. In 2017, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross Middle East and Africa's IP networks every 2 hours. Ten percent of consumer Internet traffic was mobile in 2012, and 31 percent of consumer Internet traffic will be mobile in 2017 whilst 5 percent of business Internet traffic was mobile in 2012, and 14 percent of business Internet traffic will be mobile in 2017. Consumer fixed Internet traffic grew 80 percent in 2012 and was 53 percent of total IP traffic in 2012, and will be 48 percent of total IP traffic in 2017. Internet-Video-to-TV traffic increased 3-fold in 2012. The average broadband speed grew 20 percent from 2011 to 2012, from 3.1 Mbps to 3.7 Mbps. Fixed/Wi-Fi was 54 percent of total Internet traffic in 2012, and will be 54 percent of total Internet traffic in 2017. Dr. Tarig Enaya, Managing Director, Cisco KSA, said “Cisco's VNI Forecast once again showcases the seemingly insatiable demand for bandwidth around the globe and provides insights on the architectural considerations necessary to deliver on the ever-increasing experiences being delivered. The growth projections for the Middle East and Africa demonstrate that the potential of the Internet is phenomenal. As more devices and people are connected on the network, we will continue to innovate and transform our business to meet the demands of our customers in the Kingdom. With more and more people, things, processes and data being connected in the Internet of Everything, the intelligent network and the service providers who operate them are more relevant than ever.” Moreover, the report said by 2017, there will be about 3.6 billion Internet users – more than 48 percent of the world's projected population (7.6 billion). In 2012, there were 2.3 billion Internet users – about 32 percent of the world's population (7.2 billion). By 2017, there will be more than 19 billion global network connections (fixed/mobile personal devices, M2M connections, et al.), up from about 12 billion connections in 2012. Globally, the average fixed broadband speed will increase 3.5-fold from 2012 – 2017, from 11.3 Mbps to 39 Mbps. Globally, the average fixed broadband speed grew 30 percent from 2011 – 2012, from 8.7 Mbps to 11.3 Mbps. The report further said global network users will generate 3 trillion Internet video minutes per month, that is 6 million years of video per month, or 1.2 million video minutes every second or more than two years worth of video every second. Globally, there will be nearly 2 billion Internet video users (excluding mobile-only) by 2017, up from 1 billion Internet video users in 2012. In terms of regional IP traffic projections, the Cisco report said Asia-Pacific (APAC) will generate the most IP traffic by 2017 (43.4 exabytes/month), maintaining its leadership from last year. By 2017, the highest traffic-generating countries will be the United States (37 exabytes per month) and China (18 exabytes per month). For fastest growing IP traffic at the country-level, India will have the highest IP traffic growth rate with a 44 percent CAGR from 2012 – 2017. Second is Indonesia (42 percent CAGR) and third is South Africa (31 percent CAGR) over the forecast period. – SG
