India’s internet users to reach 829 million by 2021: Cisco Visual Networking Index

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index forecast, the digital transformation will continue to drive IP traffic in India with the projected increase in internet users from 373 million in 2016 to 829 million or 59 percent of the Indian population in 2021.

The report said there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016 and the overall IP traffic is expected to grow 4-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent and reach 6.5 Exabytes of data per month in 2021, up from 1.7.

It further said, that video will continue to dominate IP traffic and overall internet traffic growth-representing 76 percent of all internet traffic in 2021, up from 57 percent in 2016 and India will reach 84 billion Internet video minutes per month by 2021, which is one hundred and sixty thousand years of video per month, or about thirty-two thousand video minutes every second.

The report further added globally, total Wi-Fi home spots will grow from 85 million in 2016 to 526.2 million by 2021 and there was 91 percent of public Wi-Fi hotspots in 2016 and by 2021 it is projected to reach 97 percent.

"Mobile networks, devices, and connections in India are not only getting smarter in their computing capabilities but are also evolving from lower-generation network connectivity (2G) to higher-generation network connectivity (3G, 3.5G, and 4G or LTE). Combining device capabilities with faster, higher bandwidth and more intelligent networks is leading to the wide adoption of high-bandwidth data, video and advanced multimedia applications that contribute to increased mobile and Wi-Fi traffic" said Sanjay Kaul, Managing Director, Service Provider Business, Cisco India & SAARC.

He added "We are witnessing a burgeoning rise in usage of mobile applications and connectivity by end users. The need for optimized bandwidth management, network automation, e2e security and ultimately network monetization through cost-efficient data production is fuelling the growth of network automation, mass market 4G deployments, and adoption, soon to be followed by 4.5G and 5G. Service providers around the world are busy architecting their networks to be more autonomous and capable of handling high bandwidth to help them meet the growing end-users demand for more bandwidth, higher security, and faster connectivity on the move. Many providers have also started field trials for 5G and are gearing towards rolling out 5G deployments towards the end of the VNI forecast period."