Internet Traffic is Growing Fast—but Capacity is Keeping Pace

September 03, 2008

According to new data from TeleGeography, international Internet traffic grew 53 percent between mid-2007 and mid-2008, down from 61 percent the preceding year. Traffic growth between the U.S. and Latin America was especially fast, surging 112 percent. In contrast, traffic on Internet backbones between major cities in the relatively more mature U.S. market rose a modest 47 percent.

For the second consecutive year, total international Internet capacity grew faster than total Internet traffic, leading to lower utilization levels on many Internet backbones. Between 2007 and 2008, average traffic utilization levels decreased from 31 percent to 29 percent, while peak utilization fell from 44 percent to 43 percent. The aggregate trend toward lower utilization of capacity belies significant regional differences. While utilization on international links to Europe and Asia fell in 2008, they rose in the U.S. & Canada and Latin American where traffic growth outpaced the deployment of new Internet bandwidth.

Average and Peak Traffic by Region, 2005-2008 (CAGR)

Traffic growth has remained strong, even though the pace of broadband subscriber growth has declined. "Broadband subscriber growth has been slowing since 2001, but the volume of traffic generated by each user grown," said TeleGeography Director of Research Alan Mauldin. "Traffic growth is fueled by consumer demand for video, delivered via web browsers, peer-to-peer services, or streaming protocols."

TeleGeography's Global Internet Geography provides in-depth analysis of international and U.S. domestic Internet backbone capacity, traffic and pricing.

To download the executive summary of TeleGeography's Global Internet Geography study, please visit: http://www.telegeography.com/research-services/global-internet-geography/.

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