Internet Traffic Growth Not Slowed by Recession
September 14, 2009
Although a deep recession has pummeled industries around the world, international Internet traffic growth shows no sign of slowing. In fact, according to new data from TeleGeography, international traffic growth accelerated to 79 percent in 2009, up from 61 percent in 2008. Growth was fastest in emerging markets, such as Eastern Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East. Traffic from each of these regions grew well over 100 percent in 2009. However, even more mature markets experienced rapid growth: peak traffic volumes on international links connected to the U.S. and Canada increased 59 percent in 2009.
Many observers feared that the recession would cause carriers to cut back on infrastructure spending, resulting in growing network congestion. Thus far, that fear has proven to be unfounded. "While some operators have postponed network upgrades, investments in new capacity have continued, and aggregate peak utilization remains well within historical ranges," said TeleGeography Research Director Alan Mauldin. For example, aggregate peak utilization on Asian networks increased from 56 percent to 62 percent between 2008 and 2009. However, the aggregate peak utilization level on Asian Internet links was lower in 2009 than in 2006, despite the fact that traffic volumes have quadrupled since 2006.
Global Peak Utilization Rates by Route, 2005-2009
The need to upgrade Internet backbones in light of traffic growth is not a new development. Since 2007, the annual growth rate of international Internet capacity has exceeded 60 percent. In 2009, international Internet bandwidth increased 64 percent. In 2009, network operators added 9.4 Tbps of new capacity—exceeding the 8.7 Tbps in existence just two years earlier.
TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography provides in-depth analysis of international and U.S. domestic Internet backbone capacity, traffic and IP transit pricing.
To download the detailed executive summary of TeleGeography’s study, please visit: http://www.telegeography.com/research-services/global-internet-geography/.
For further information, please contact: Alan Mauldin amauldin@telegeography.com +1 202 741 0048
