World mobile data traffic to explode by factor of 26 by 2015

Anyone who thinks that the Internet revolution is in anything but its early phase had better take a look at Cisco's latest Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast(PDF). There are so many startling predictions and observations in the report that we'll just begin with these headlines:

• There will be 788 million mobile-only Internet users by 2015.
• Global mobile data traffic will increase by a factor of 26 by 2015.
• World mobile data grew by a factor of 2.6 in 2010 from 2009.
• Average smartphone usage doubled: 79 MB per month, up from 35 MB per month in 2009.
• Android operating system data use is rapidly catching up to the iPhone.
• In 2010 almost a third of smartphone traffic was offloaded onto fixed networks via dual-mode or Femtocells.
• Millions of people around the world have cell phones but no electricity, and by 2015 a majority in the Middle East and Southeast Asia will live "off-grid, on-net."

"It is a testament to the momentum of the mobile industry that this growth persisted despite the continued economic downturn, the introduction of tiered mobile data packages, and an increase in the amount of mobile traffic offloaded to the fixed network," Cisco notes.

Three times three (almost)

For the third year in a row, global mobile data use has nearly tripled, Cisco says. And the growth isn't only happening in the places where mobile adoption is in its early phases. It's happening where the smartphone revolution has been going full bore for years.

In Italy, Telecom Italia delivered 15 times more mobile data traffic in 2010 than in 2007. AT&T says that its traffic jumped by a factor of 30 from third quarter of 2009 through the third quarter of 2010. China Unicom's 3G system saw a 62 percent traffic boost in a single quarter: Q1 to Q2 of 2010. Europe's TeliaSonera says it expects mobile data traffic to double each year for the next five years.

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