Study: US Net Traffic to Grow 50-fold by 2015

STUDY: U.S. NET TRAFFIC TO GROW 50-FOLD BY 2015
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: ]
New technologies are dramatically transforming the Internet and could boost IP traffic in the United States more than 50-fold within the next decade, according to “Estimating the Exaflood: The Impact of Video and Rich Media on the Internet,” a report released by the Discovery Institute. The 24-page report, co-authored by Bret Swanson and George Gilder, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, describes the technologies and trends that will drive Internet growth. It projects IP traffic levels overall and by application. By 2015, video calling and virtual windows, for example, could total 400 exabytes a year, or about 40 percent of U.S. traffic. The report estimates that by 2015 annual U.S. Internet and IP traffic will reach 1,000 exabytes, or one zettabyte, which is one million million billion bytes of data. A zettabyte is roughly equivalent to 50 million Libraries of Congress. According to the report, capacity in broadband access networks to homes and businesses must expand by a factor of between 10 and 100 over the next few years. New network investments expanding bandwidth, storage, and traffic management capabilities in the U.S. could total more than $100 billion in the next half-decade alone. Technology remains the key engine of U.S. economic growth and its competitive edge, the authors contend. Policies that encourage investment and innovation in our digital and communications sectors should be among America’s highest national priorities, they believe.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/01/29/daily.6/

* Estimating the Exaflood: The Impact of Video and Rich Media on the Internet
http://www.discovery.org/a/4428