Six astonishing predictions about the internet in 2019
Just eight years ago, there was no iPhone, while a mere decade ago, half of all Britain's internet connections were made via the dulcet tones of dial-up – things change fast.
In just a few years' time who knows how the internet will change?
Well, there are some quite astonishing predictions that have been made about how the internet will look in 2019, in a new report from Cisco.
Here are six of them (spoiler: it's going to be pretty huge).
1.
In just four years' time, there will be more internet traffic bouncing around the networked globe than all the traffic previously generated in the entire history of the internet since 1984.
2.
By 2019, for every single person in the UK, there will be nine connected devices – that’s a total of 614.9m for the entire country.
3.
Internet traffic across the globe is so large that it’s measured in exabytes – that’s one billion gigabytes, or the equivalent data storage capacity of 62.5m iPhone 6s.
By 2019, traffic on the internet will reach 168 exabytres each month. That’s the equivalent of 42bn DVDs – more than double current levels of 59.9 exabytes.
4.
Of all that internet traffic, video will account for more than three quarters. That means people will collectively be watching 223,586 years' (yes, years) worth of video every single month.
5.
Internet traffic on mobile devices will grow twice as fast as fixed traffic over the next four years UK, and by 2016, it will account for nine per cent of all internet traffic, up on the four per cent it accounts for now.
6.
Connections between one device and another – without any involvement from people whatsoever – will account for almost half of all those connected devices. That figure currently stands at just over a quarter.
7.
Despite this astronomical growth, nearly half the world’s population will still not have access to the internet.
Currently, there are 2.8bn people using the internet across the world, around 39 per cent of the global population, and that’s set to grow to 3.9bn by 2019. That's more than ever before, but still only 49 per cent of the world.
Forecasts from Cisco’s Visual Networking Index.