Middle East and Africa (MEA) will continue to be the fastest growing IP traffic region in the world from 2012 to 2017, registering a five-fold growth and marking a 38 per cent compound annual growth rate over the period, a report said.

During the period, global Internet protocol (IP) traffic will grow three-fold, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2012-2017).

MEA was the fastest growing region last year as well (10-fold growth, 57 per cent compound annual growth rate for 2011 – 2016 forecast period) in this category, said the report.

Highlights of the Cisco forecast for MEA IP traffic:

•    IP traffic in 2017 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 per cent in 2012 and business Internet traffic grew 63 per cent in 2012.

•    In 2017, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross Middle East and Africa's IP networks every 2 hours.

•    10 per cent of consumer Internet traffic was mobile in 2012, and 31 per cent of consumer Internet traffic will be mobile in 2017 whilst 5 per cent of business Internet traffic was mobile in 2012, and 14 per cent of business Internet traffic will be mobile in 2017.

•    Consumer fixed Internet traffic grew 80 per cent in 2012 and was 53 per cent of total IP traffic in 2012, and will be 48 per cent of total IP traffic in 2017.

•    Internet-Video-to-TV traffic increased 3-fold in 2012.

•    The average broadband speed grew 20 per cent from 2011 to 2012, from 3.1 Mbps to 3.7 Mbps.

•    Fixed/Wi-Fi was 54 per cent of total Internet traffic in 2012, and will be 54 per cent of total Internet traffic in 2017.

•    The number of Internet users will reach 413 million by 2017.

“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,” said Fadi Moubarak, general manager, Levant Area, Cisco, a worldwide leader in IT.

“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 Lebanon.

“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,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service