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African Internet Traffic To Grow Six-fold By 2020

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Africa’s internet traffic will grow six-fold by 2020, when the Middle East and Africa internet traffic will be equivalent to 527 times the volume of the region's in 2005.

Africa will also be the fastest growing region, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, which covers the years 2015-2020.

Calling Africa "a renowned mobile centric hub", Cisco says there will be about 1,.5 networked devices per capita in 2020, of which 77% will be mobile. The average mobile connection will be 5Mbps, while fixed broadband speed will increase 2.4 fold, it predicts.

“The digital transformation is happening now for billions of consumers and businesses users across the globe,” says Cathy Smith, general manager for Cisco South Africa. "Increased connectivity and internet usage will positively impact South Africa’s digital migration journey."

Globally, mobile data traffic will grow 15-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 71%, or twice as much as wired usage. Mobile will grow to 40% of total IP traffic in 2020, up from 15% in 2015.

Global IP networks in the  next five years will have some 10-billion new devices and connections, growing to 26.3-billion by 2020 from 16.3-billion in 2015.

"Video services and content continue to be the dominant leader compared with all other applications, says Smith. "Internet video will account for 79% of global Internet traffic by 2020, up from 63% in 2015. The world will reach 3-trillion internet video minutes per month by 2020, which is 5-million years of video per month, or about 1-million video minutes every second. HD and Ultra HD Internet video will make up 82% of Internet video traffic by 2020, up from 53% in 2015."

Meanwhile, machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are predicted to surge three-fold, from 4.9-billion in 2015 to 12.2 billion by 2020, or 46% of all connected devices in the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). M2M connections in Africa will account for 22% of all networked devices by 2020, Smith said in a statement.

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