Data guzzlers

By The Economist online

How the world will use the internet in 2015

RELIABLE data about internet traffic is hard to come by. One of the better sources is Cisco's annual Visual Networking Index, which was published on June 1st. Internet traffic, the world's biggest maker of networking gear predicts, will quadruple and reach 80.5 exabytes per month (80 exabytes would fill 20 billion DVDs) by 2015. That year, for the first time, Asia will generate more traffic (24.1 exabytes per month) than North America (22.3 exabytes per month)—although Amercia still beats China (6.9 versus 5.6 exabytes per month). Yet if traffic figures are divided by population, a somewhat different (and more meaningful) picture emerges: South Korea is and will be the world's most data-hungry country in Cisco's sample. Even Canada and France (and, by 2015, Britain) will consume more gigabytes per month per person than America. As for China, it drops down the list and will be overtaken by Brazil, but remains way ahead of India.