How much will your mobile internet use increase by 2015?

 

UK mobile data traffic expected to increase by an average of 84% a year between 2010 and 2015.

Have you noticed that you’ve been using mobile internet more and more over the last couple of years?

Total UK mobile data traffic will increase by an average of 84% a year between 2010 and 2015, independent research commissioned by Vodafone predicts.

As more and more of us use smartphones and tablet computers to get online, mobile data traffic will account for 11% of all internet traffic by 2015 - up from 2% in 2010.

Total UK internet traffic is expected to grow more slowly, but still increase by 37% a year between 2010 and 2015, from 621PB (petabytes - over 620 million gigabytes) in 2010 to 3,000PB in 2015.

According to the mobile network’s report, conducted by management consultants A.T. Kearney, 3,000PB is the equivalent of downloading almost 200 million albums every day.

The Internet Economy in the United Kingdom report also revealed that the UK’s internet economy is worth £82bllion, or almost 6% of the money the country makes, and that every £1 spent on both fixed and mobile internet connectivity in the UK generates £5 in revenue for the wider digital economy.

However, despite these networks accounting for over two-thirds of capital expenditure in the internet economy, the companies that invest in them see only 16% of the money made through the internet coming back to them, Vodafone’s report found.

The research has been published ahead of the government taking a look at the regulation created by the 2003 Communications Act, which Vodafone believes is “out of step with a country that has an internet economy worth £82billion”.

Mark Page, a partner at A.T. Kearney, said: “The majority of traffic on mobile phone networks is data which supports a wide range of consumer and business services. It is in the interests of everyone in the UK who increasingly depends on the mobile internet that investment keeps pace with demand and that the policy framework supports this level of investment.”

Vodafone has called for regulations that provide a stable environment for UK-based networks which will allow them to invest further in the internet and compete with their competitors abroad.

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