Information technology and society: By 2016 the number of mobile devices with Internet access will exceed the Earth population

The number of mobile devices with Internet access by 2016 will exceed the earth's population, according to the Cisco study.

According to the UN, world population by 2016 will be about 7.3 billion people, while the number of mobile devices with Internet access will by that time exceed 10 billion.

Due to the popularity of mobile gadgets, global mobile Internet traffic will grow 18 times by 2016 – up to 10.8 exabytes per month or 130 exabytes per year, says Cisco's study Visual Networking Index. For comparison, 130 exabytes equals a content of about 33 million DVDs, or 4.3 quadrillion of MP3-files, or 813 quadrillion of SMS.

According to analysts, by 2016 the volume of mobile online traffic in the world will be three-fold higher than the same index for stationary devices. Important role is attributed to Tablet PCs, whose level of Internet traffic is expected to grow 62 times over the five years.

Another reason for this growth is the increasing demand for online content, which can be viewed directly online, without downloading it to your device. According to the forecast of Cisco, mobile data traffic related to the use of "cloud" content services, will grow 28 times by 2016, compared to 2011. Three-quarters or 7.6 exabytes per month of the entire mobile online traffic in 2016 will fall on viewing of movies and other video content streamed from the "cloud".

The most active growth of mobile Internet traffic is expected to be recorded in the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

The average speed of Internet connections in the world will grow nine times over the next five years, predicts Cisco. According to the study, by 2016 about 4 billion mobile devices (which is 39% of the total predicted number) will support IPv6 Internet Protocol.