Research data on mobile usage is coming at us at a fast and furious rate. Here are some of the interesting numbers from Cisco that give a pretty good picture of what’s happening – and what’s to come.
More people will have phones than electricity and running water. This CNET article cites a Cisco report that shows 5.4 billion people will own mobile phones by 2020. By comparison 5.3 billion people will have electricity and 3.5 billion will have running water.
Data is set to explode. Data usage will also increase 10-fold to 366.8 exabytes and phones will make up 81% of total mobile traffic by that time. (The author helps us along by explaining exactly what 366.8 exabytes is: “That’s the equivalent of 81 trillion Instagram photos or 7 trillion YouTube clips.”) By 2020 over 75% of mobile data will be video.
Devices will keep on coming.The total number of mobile-ready devices in general will reach 11.6 billion (versus 7.9 billion in 2015).
So what’s so significant about 2020? Predictions are that’s when 5G will gain widespread traction, which could push the numbers up yet again. While that might seem long a ways down the road, carriers are already laying the groundwork for the next iteration.
Cel-Fi is no exception. So you can be sure that when 5G hits the ground running, we’ll be ready.
Do you think 5G will be ready by 2020 – or will it be sooner?
By the Cel-Fi Team