A study released by Cisco Systems this week says that IP traffic will quadruple by 2014--100 exabytes higher than projected 2013 traffic and 10 times higher than the level of Internet traffic in 2008--and a large part of that traffic will be video, reports Network World.
The fastest-growing traffic regions over the next five years will include Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, while the highest traffic generating regions remain North America, Asia Pacific, Western Europe and Japan.
The findings in the Visual Networking Index study seem optimistic--not surprising, considering Cisco has a vested interest in IP video--but a few big questions about the Internet are still unresolved. These include U.S. regulators and cable operators grappling with net neutrality, the broadband stimulus plan that's just seeing its first steps, and perhaps most worrying, the fast-dwindling supply of IPv4 addresses.
An Infonetics Research report forecasts that video services revenue will top $250 billion globally by 2014, with telco IPTV taking a nice chunk of that revenue, yet it sees cable and satellite TV staying competitive based on current ARPU (average revenue per user).
For more:
- see this story
- and this Infonetics release
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