Video to account for 72% of mobile data in four years, says Cisco

Figures in parentheses refer to 2014, 2019 traffic share. Source: Cisco VNI Mobile, 2015.

Mobile video viewing will increase 13-fold between 2014 and 2019, accounting for a massive 72% of total mobile data traffic by the end of 2019, according to new research by Cisco.

The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update claims that mobile video viewing accounted for 55% of total mobile data traffic by the end of 2014, having first hit the 50% milestone at the end of 2012, with this upwards trend tipped to continue.

“Because mobile video content has much higher bit rates than other mobile content types, mobile video will generate much of the mobile traffic growth through 2019. Mobile video will grow at a CAGR of 66% between 2014 and 2019, the highest growth rate of any mobile application category that we forecast other than M2M (machine to machine) traffic,” said Cisco.

“Of the 24.3 exabytes per month crossing the mobile network by 2019, 17.4 exabytes will be due to video. Mobile video represented more than half of global mobile data traffic beginning in 2012, indicating that it is having an immediate impact on traffic today, not just in the future.”

Cisco’s research said that total global mobile data traffic grew 69% in 2014, reaching 2.5 exabytes per month at the end of 2014, up from 1.5 exabytes per month at the end of 2013.

“Last year’s mobile data traffic was nearly 30 times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. One exabyte of traffic traversed the global Internet in 2000, and in 2014 mobile networks carried nearly 30 exabytes of traffic,” said Cisco.