Increasing Broadband Internet Penetration
In the OIC Member Countries
35
III. BROADBAND GLOBAL TRENDS
The following section presents information on global trends regarding broadband supply and
demand. It first reviews industry trends at a global level and then highlights the gaps in
penetration. It also identifies three best practices as approaches that would allow tackling
some of the principal broadband adoption barriers.
III.1. Global broadband industry trendsThe global telecommunications industry is facing the challenge of continuing to deploy
network infrastructure that accommodates the exponential growth in data traffic. The need to
continue building high-capacity networks is putting pressure on capital investment at a times
when revenues are stagnating due to demand saturation and competition from Over The Top
platforms. In this context, industry consolidation and the structuring of multinational carriers
that stake dominant market positions in key geographies has become a critical imperative.
Exponential broadband traffic growthAnnual global Internet traffic in 2016 has reached 88.7 billion gigabytes per month. Having
grown at an annual rate of 30% in the past five years, it is expected to continue increasing at a
compound annual growth rate of 22% through 2020, therefore reaching 194 billion
gigabytes20. This growth is a result of both the increase in data access devices and usage per
device, primarily video traffic. For example, by 2020 there will be 3.4 Internet connected
devices per capita up from 2.2 in 2015.
Drivers of traffic growth are numerous ranging from the increase in machine to machine
devices (which in 2020 will amount to 46% of total installed base), to the introduction of ultra-
high definition video streaming (which requires twice the bit rate of high definition), to the
increased use of online gaming and social networking, and the migration of video watching to
video streaming from conventional television.
In this context of exponential traffic growth, Internet traffic will grow fastest in the Middle East
and Africa (27% compound annual growth rate) reaching 10.9 billion gigabytes per month in
2020. The growth rate in Central and Eastern Europe will be similar resulting in 17 billion
gigabytes per month in 2020, while growth in North America and Europe will be between 19%
and 20%.
Deployment of high-capacity networksTo accommodate the growing traffic, broadband service providers need to deploy fixed and
mobile networks capable of delivering data flows at faster speeds. While high-capacity
broadband networks represent 38% of all subscriptions on a worldwide scale, the choice of
technology tends to vary by region. For example, some European countries (France, Spain, and
20 CISCO (2016). Visual Networking Index.