SUB-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria and the Middle East counterpacts are expected to record about 15.1 per cent growth rate in Internet penetration between now and 2018.
This, according to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index report 2013 to 2018 will see additional 431million Internet users in the regions by the period.
Already, Nigeria’s Internet user is estimated to be around 63 million, connected through the GSM platform. The VNI also informed that the global Internet Protocol traffic would increase nearly three-fold over the next four years due to more Internet users and devices, faster broadband speeds and more video viewing, among others.
Cisco, a worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, said this at the conclusion of an annual study. Globally, the study predicted that Internet traffic would grow more than 20 per cent by 2018.
While the MEA region is expected to see about 15.1 per cent Internet growth, the regions IP traffic within the same period will see five-fold growth and a 38-per cent CAGR.
The Cisco report informed that with the FIFA World Cup 2014 gradually coming to an end, tens of millions of people were viewing games and/or highlights via the Internet.
Explaining the report to journalists in Lagos, at the weekend, General Manager, English West Africa, Cisco, Dare Ogunlade disclosed that video streaming and IP broadcast of the World Cup are anticipated to generate 4.3 exabytes of Internet traffic, which is three times the amount of monthly traffic generated by (this year’s World Cup host city).
“In addition, Internet traffic generated by the 60,000 people in a stadium and travelling to games is forecast to surpass the average busy-hour traffic from all 94 million smartphones in Brazil,” he stated.
According to the report “to place the World Cup in context, global IP traffic is expected to reach 132 exabytes per month by 2018, which is the equivalent to 8.8 billion screens streaming the FIFA World Cup final game in Ultra-HD/4K at the same time.
