Measurable 5G Impact on Mobile Growth Expected to Begin by 2020
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 7, 2017) - (
By 2021, Cisco projects mobile data traffic to reach the following milestones:
The explosion of mobile applications and adoption of mobile connectivity by end users is fueling the growth of 4G, soon to be followed by 5G growth. Cisco and other industry experts anticipate large-scale deployments of 5G infrastructures to begin by 2020. Mobile carriers will need the innovative speed, low latency, and dynamic provisioning capabilities that 5G networks are expected to deliver to address not just increasing subscriber demands but also new services trends across mobile, residential, and business markets. Cisco forecasts that 5G will account for 1.5 percent of total mobile data traffic by 2021, and will generate 4.7 times more traffic than the average 4G connection and 10.7 times more traffic than the average 3G connection.
"With the proliferation of IoT, live mobile video, augmented and virtual reality applications, and more innovative experiences for consumer and business users alike, 5G technology will have significant relevance not just for mobility but rather for networking as a whole," said Doug Webster, vice president of service provider marketing. "As a result, broader and more extensive architectural transformations involving programmability and automation will also be needed to support the capabilities 5G enables, and to address not just today's demands but also the extensive possibilities on the horizon."
Additional Key Mobile Data Traffic Projections and Forecasted Trends:
1. Rise in global mobile data center traffic
2. High growth for live video on mobile
3. Growth in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
4. Global connected wearable devices driving M2M growth
5. Mobile data traffic offload to Wi-Fi networks
6. Regional mobile data traffic growth (2016 - 2021)
1. The Middle East and Africa will have 12-fold growth
(2016: 7.3 exabytes/year; 2021: 88.4 exabytes/year)
2. Asia-Pacific will have 7-fold growth
(2016: 37.3 exabytes/year; 2021: 274.2 exabytes/year)
3. Latin America will have 6-fold growth
(2016: 5.4 exabytes/year; 2021: 34.8 exabytes/year)
4. Central and Eastern Europe will have 6-fold growth
(2016: 11.1 exabytes/year; 2021: 63.0 exabytes/year)
5. Western Europe will have 6-fold growth
(2016: 8.8 exabytes/year; 2021: 50.3 exabytes/year)
6. North America will have 5-fold growth
(2016: 16.9 exabytes/year; 2021: 76.8 exabytes/year)
Cisco Mobile VNI Forecast Methodology
The Cisco® VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2016-2021) relies upon independent analyst forecasts and real-world mobile data usage studies. Upon this foundation are layered Cisco's own estimates for mobile application adoption, minutes of use and transmission speeds. Key enablers such as mobile broadband speed and device computing power are also factored into Cisco mobile VNI projections and findings. A detailed methodology description is included in the complete report (see link below).
Editor's Notes
Cisco also welcomes press, analysts, bloggers, service providers, regulators and other interested parties to use and reference our research with proper attribution, such as "Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2016-2021."
Cisco defines the following terms:
Video and Images
Additional Supporting Resources
Cisco (
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.
1 Global population in 2021 will be approximately 7.8 billion people according to United Nations' estimates.
RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds
Contact Information:
Media Contact:
Raquel Prieto
408-527-3754
raqpriet@cisco.com