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Internet traffic still growing briskly

08 October 2010 14:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. International internet traffic is continuing to grow at a rapid pace despite slowing slightly over the past year, according to a new report.

Traffic in the first half of 2010 grew by about 62 per cent, down somewhat from 74 per cent growth a year ago, but the increase is in line with recent years, a report from Washington, D.C.-based TeleGeography said.

Internet service providers added about 13.2 terabits per second of international capacity in the first half of the year, up from 9.4 terabits a year earlier and six terabits a year before that.

"Carriers must add enormous amounts of new capacity each year to accommodate such traffic growth," said Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, which tracks developments in international bandwidth.

"Thanks to these large increases in new bandwidth, traffic growth has not overwhelmed operatorsâ€™ networks, and overall network utilization levels have remained stable."

Canadian internet service providers have increased international internet capacity to cities by 44 per cent since 2006. Usage during peak hours of the day on cross-border links, mainly to the United States, has decreased over that same time to 32 per cent of total capacity from 48 per cent.

Mauldin said this decrease is a good thing because it means international internet links to Canada are less congested. The decrease could be caused by a number of factors, but it tends to fluctuate as ISPs periodically add more capacity.

ISPs may be caching more internet content in Canada rather than requiring users to connect to international sources, Mauldin said. They may also be using so-called "mesh" networks, which include wireless access, to lessen the demand on wired networks.

"If you have five, six, seven, eight paths all carrying traffic at once, they might all have lower levels than they used to have," he said. "It’s hard to isolate."

Internationally, the TeleGeography report found a huge divide in internet capacity still exists between developed and developing nations. Austria, for example, had more internet capacity this year than all of Africa despite a population difference of eight million people compared to one billion.

Prices for international capacity are continuing to decline, though, with the cheapest bandwidth by far found in North America.

The research firm found that while capacity costs will go down in developing regions, they are unlikely to match developed nations for some time because of restrictive regulatory regimes, difficult economic conditions and unreliable infrastructure.