Total international internet bandwidth now stands at 786 Tbps, representing a four-year CAGR of 29%. Among all countries, Africa experienced the most rapid growth of international internet bandwidth, growing at a compound annual rate of 45% between 2017 and 2021.
“International internet bandwidth growth largely mirrors that of internet capacity, which both have a CAGR of 29% between 2017 and 2021,” said Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography. “And our Global Internet Geography report has officially been running for 20 years now, meaning two decades of research inform our latest findings.”
The return to more normal usage patterns resulted in a substantial slowdown in the annual growth rate, compared to the previous year’s 34%. While average traffic growth dropped to 23% between 2020-2021, and peak traffic growth dropped from 46% to 26% over the same time period, traffic is largely growing overall.
“On a global scale, we’re seeing a whole range of new internet-enabled devices, growing broadband penetration in developing markets, higher broadband access rates, and even more bandwidth-intensive applications,” said Anahí Rebatta, senior analyst at TeleGeography. “These are just some of the factors fueling strong internet traffic growth and end-user traffic requirements.”
Based on hard survey data gathered from dozens of regional and global network operators around the world, TeleGeography concludes that COVID-related expansion of internet traffic and bandwidth was largely a one-off phenomenon and that the trends we had been observing in recent years have reasserted themselves.
