Internet Traffic up 62% in 2010

Data from research firm Telegeography shows that Internet traffic has grown 62 percent in 2010, after logging a handsome 74 percent growth in 2009.

The growth in traffic is coming from non-mature markets likes Eastern Europe and India, where traffic growth between mid-2009 and mid-2010 was in excess of 100 percent. This means the carriers, who added about 13.2 Tbps of new Internet capacity in 2010, will have to keep beefing up their networks. In comparison, carriers added 9.4 Tbps of capacity in 2009 and 6 Tbps in 2008. That said, the networks are not evenly divided. The capacity is still in abundance in larger, more mature markets, but less so in newer markets such as Africa. This will be changing soon, especially as we see deployment of new cables in those regions.

This new capacity in non-mature markets, when married to growth in wireless networks and easy availability of cheap smartphones, is going to turn the Internet on its head.