Data Traffic Equal to 42 Quadrillion Tweets will be Generated by Mobile Devices by 2017

Juniper Research is a company that was founded in 2001. Since that time, it has grown to become one of the leading analyst firms in the wireless sector. Juniper specializes in identifying and appraising new high growth market sectors within the mobile ecosystem.

April 10, 2013, Juniper Research released a report entitled “Mobile Data Offload & Onload: Wi-Fi, Small Cell & Carrier-grade Strategies 2012-2017.” Although 2012 was a remarkable breakthrough year for 4G LTE networks, operators will still need offloading technologies such as Wi-Fi and Small Cells to augment their 4G networks.

This is due to the fact that a massive number of mobile devices in use had led to what can only be described as an explosion in mobile data traffic. According to Juniper’s report, the amount of mobile data traffic generated by smartphones, featurephones and tablets will exceed 90,000 petabytes by 2017. When you consider that one petabyte is equivalent to one quadrillion bytes you can get a better idea of how much mobile data this is. Juniper equates this to 42 quadrillion tweets or about seven billion Blu-ray movies.

What is interesting is that from all of this mobile traffic, the report finds that only about 40 percent of the mobile data that is generated will travel on the cellular network by 2017. The majority of this traffic is seen going through the Wi-Fi network.

Nitin Bhas, the author of the report, stated, “The trend will continue and operators will make use of more integrated units of Wi-Fi and small cells. In the case of indoor cells, where most usage happens, you effectively have Wi-Fi as the pioneer and are in many ways the leader in this area. Small cells are indeed becoming a part of it.”

Earlier this year in March I wrote an article stating that Wi-Fi was the work horse on the data network side. More carriers are setting up public Wi-Fi hotspots so that their subscribers can have easier access. I know of a woman that when she and her 10 year son go to a diner his first question to the waitress is, “what is your Wi-Fi password?” I’ll say it again, the “I need to be connected everywhere, all the time” generation.

In any event, users demand high bandwidth availability through Wi-Fi. This has forced the operators to address consumer expectations concerning quality and a good experience while still trying to create opportunities for the operators.

This is why the report sees the need for the operators to continue to rely on offloading technologies such as Wi-Fi and Small Cells. It is the same old story of the more you give someone the more they will want. It goes back to the always and everywhere theme. By offloading some of the mobile data traffic to Wi-Fi, everyone gets fast bandwidth that they need.

If we take a look at individual regions, Juniper’s expectations are that North America and Western Europe will rank the highest during the forecast period when it comes to offloading. Another key finding from the report is that Notebooks and eReaders will onload over 20 percent of their data traffic to the mobile networks in 2013.

If you are interested in reading the actual report from Juniper Research you can do so by clicking here.