Report finds global internet usage rising rapidly

David Swan
Wednesday, 18 May 2011 11:13

IT Industry - Development

A new global internet report has revealed a fast growing appetite for on-demand applications, putting pressure on the government to deliver its much touted NBN.

Sandvine, an American based provider of broadband network solutions for fixed and mobile operators, today announced the release of their Global Internet Phenomena Report: Spring 2011, including internet trends from North America, Latin America and Europe, with specific spotlights on events such as Netflix adoption and NFL On Demand.

The survey didn't include Australia, but global trends still remain relevant particularly as the NBN implementation gets underway, and as the Federal Government has to make a case for increased data consumption.

Major findings from the report include:

'¢             In North America, Netflix is now 29.7% of peak downstream traffic and has become the largest source of Internet traffic overall.  Currently, Real-Time Entertainment applications consume 49.2% of peak aggregate traffic, up from 29.5% in 2009 - a 60% increase. Sandvine forecasts that the Real-Time Entertainment category will represent 55-60% of peak aggregate traffic by the end of 2011.

'¢             In Latin America, Social Networking (overwhelmingly Facebook) is a bigger source of traffic than YouTube, representing almost 14% of network traffic. Real-Time Entertainment represents 27.5% of peak aggregate traffic, still the largest contributor of traffic in that region.

'¢             In Europe, Real-Time Entertainment continues a steady climb, rising to 33.2% of peak aggregate traffic, up from 31.9% last fall. BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol, is the largest single component of both upstream (59.7%) and downstream (21.6%) Internet traffic during peak periods. In the UK, BBC's iPlayer is 6.6% of peak downstream traffic, reflecting the demand for localized content in many markets. Overall, individual subscribers in Europe consume twice the amount of data as North Americans.

Clearly media organizations and regulators are still coming to terms with BitTorrent, in Europe at least.

The reports are an ongoing series of Internet phenomena and traffic analysis studies that have been published since 2002.

The information in the Spring 2011 study is based on voluntary and completely anonymous data, aggregated from fixed and mobile service provider networks spanning Europe, Latin America and North America. Sandvine's global view, which includes over 220 service provider customers spanning more than 85 countries, makes the report the most comprehensive of its kind in the industry.

'The information and trends in Sandvine's Spring 2011 Global Internet Phenomena Report, emphasize the need for innovative solutions to keep up with rapidly evolving consumer demands for content and connectivity. The dramatic growth of Netflix and its impending global expansion are prime examples of a growing appetite for real-time entertainment,' said Dave Caputo, President and CEO, Sandvine.

'It is also important for fixed and mobile broadband providers to have real-time policy control capability, made possible by insightful business intelligence, in order to put sound strategic decisions into action.'