Mobile data traffic generated by mobile gadgets, including Smartphones, Featurephones and Tablets will reach almost 197,000 PB (Petabytes) by 2019, equivalent to over 10 billion Blu-ray movies, according to Juniper Research. However, the research firm expects that only 41% of the data generated by these devices will be carried over cellular networks by 2019, with the majority of mobile data traffic offloaded to Wi-Fi networks, making Wi-Fi as an integral part of operators’ network strategy. Wi-Fi is not just being used for data offload, but also to maintain call connection quality in challenging network topologies, using the WiFi calling service which was recently launched by a number of leading mobile operators.
The leading market research firm, however expects that the onloaded M2M traffic will significantly increase over the forecast period, primarily driven by telematics and connected car infotainment systems.
In its report - Mobile Data Offload & Onload: Wi-Fi, Small Cell & Network Strategies 2015-2019 - Juniper Research estimates that the average monthly data usage by smartphone and tablet users to double over the next four years. The daily media consumption by mobile users will continue to rise, bolstered by the rise in 4G adoption and factors such as HD video usage, added the firm.
Nitin Bhas, Research Author
Certainly, video is forming an ever-greater proportion of network traffic. For example, Juniper Research anticipates that video traffic over smartphones will increase by nearly 8 times between 2014 and 2019. Video currently accounts for around 60% of global IP traffic and, in some developed markets, this proportion is likely to exceed 70% in 2-3 years.
