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Global Internet Traffic to Quadruple by 2015, Reaching 966 Exabytes Per Year

Cisco predicts that the number of network-connected devices will be more than 15 billion, twice the world's population, by 2015. In its Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-2015) report released today, the company also predicts the total amount of global Internet traffic to quadruple by 2015 and reach 966 exabytes per year.

Netflix Becomes Largest Source of Internet Traffic in North America

Netflix has become the largest source of Internet traffic in North America, according Sandvine's Spring 2011 Global Internet Phenomena Report. Company further reports that currently, Real-Time Entertainment applications consume 49.2% of peak aggregate traffic, up from 29.5% in 2009 -- a 60% increase [see figture]. Sandvine forecasts that the Real-Time Entertainment category will represent 55-60% of peak aggregate traffic by the end of 2011.

Average Connection Speeds on Mobile Networks Fastest in Greece, Says Akamai

In the fourth quarter of 2010, a mobile provider in Greece (GR-1) had the highest average connection speed, at just over 4.5 Mbps, according to Akamai's latest State of the Internet Report. "The mobile providers in Slovakia and Russia that had previously been reported as having the highest average connection speeds were removed from consideration in the fourth quarter, as further research determined that their autonomous systems carried a mix of traffic from fixed and mobile connections."

IFTF Tribute to Paul Baran: Forecasted Online Shopping, News and Banking in 1971

With the recent passing of Paul Baran, IFTF is releasing an excerpt of a 1971 report in tribute, entitled "Brief descriptions of potential home information services." The excerpts are from the report titled, Toward a Study of Future Urban High-Capacity Telecommunications Systems, which included a handbook of forecasts for what was then called "broadband telecommunication and information services," later known as the Internet.

Google Starts Experimental Fiber Network Rollout With Kansas City

Google today announced plans to build ultra high-speed broadband service to a selected community in the U.S. as part of its experimental fiber network. In its announcement via a blog post, the company says: "In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations. We've found this in Kansas City. We'll be working closely with local organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and the University of Kansas Medical Center to help develop the gigabit applications of the future."

Global Broadband Subscribers Reached 763 Million in 2010

During calendar year 2010, an average of 9.2 million new broadband subscribers signed up for service each month. Subscribers reached 763 million worldwide in 2010 with 179 million in United States. "Total worldwide DSL subscribers will reach 371 million at year-end 2010, fueled primarily by strong demand for DSL service in the Asia/Pacific region," according to In-Stat's latest market intelligence report. "Though this is expected to slowly decrease to 10% by 2014 as the broadband market matures, there are still some substantial gains to be made. The Asia/Pacific region will continue to see very high growth rates, along with Latin America and the Middle East/Africa regions," says Vahid Dejwakh, Industry Analyst.

US Carriers Continue Their Decline As More Folks Push Their Way Into the “Tier 1” Club

Clint Hepner from Renesys reports: "The US old guard of AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Qwest are treading water or declining. And as if to highlight that fact, Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom (AS5511) all became transit-free during the year. ... [P]roviders with a strong global footprint and a diverse set of offerings are continuing to rise in the rankings. And those organizations with popular content or captive end-users will find themselves increasingly in the driver's seat when it comes to pricing negotiations. When it comes to the Internet, the only constant is change and we can expect more turmoil in 2011 as the market continues its rapid evolution."

Real Connection Speeds for Internet Users Around the World

Royal Pingdom takes a look at real-world connection speeds for people in the top 50 countries on the Internet, i.e. the countries with the most Internet users. This list of countries ranges from China at number 1 with 420 million Internet users, and Denmark at number 50 with 4.75 million Internet users. We've included this ranking within parenthesis next to each country in the charts below for those who want to know. These 50 countries together have more than 1.8 billion Internet users.

Poland Launches Eastern Europe’s First Commercial LTE Network

Paul Budde writes: "Two relatively new mobile market entrants, Mobyland and Centernet, have launched Poland and Eastern Europe's first commercial LTE network. Vendor Huawei provided the equipment for the network, which operates in the 1800MHz frequency band. Both Mobyland and Centernet previously offered GSM services in the frequency band before refarming the spectrum to offer LTE. The operators aim to expand coverage to 20% of the population by 2011 by deploying 700 base stations."

FCC Approves White Space Usage for “Super Wi-Fi” Technologies

In a unanimous vote today, the FCC has given a green light for the use of "white spaces" in order to deliver broadband connections as super "WiFi". From today's announcement: "The Federal Communications Commission today took steps to free up vacant airwaves between TV channels -- called "white spaces" -- to unleash a host of new technologies, such as "super Wi-Fi," and myriad other diverse applications. This is the first significant block of spectrum made available for unlicensed use in more than 20 years. TV white space spectrum is considered prime real estate because its signals travel well, making it ideally suited for mobile wireless devices."

Politico Writes of Comcast’s IPv6 Effort

Larry Seltzer writes: Politico? Comcast's PR gets an 'A' for this article, an upbeat tech-lite description of the impending depletion of the IPv4 space and efforts to adopt IPv6. It also seems that the Obama administration is behind this, and that the Federal government has had "remarkable foresight on this issue." I feel better already.

ITU Targeting Broadband for Over Half of World Population by 2015

ITU Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun Touré, has challenged global leaders to ensure that more than half of all the world's people have access to broadband networks by 2015, and make access to high-speed networks a basic civil right. "Broadband will be a game-changer in addressing rising healthcare costs, delivering digital education, empowering marginalized communities, and mitigating climate change."

A Look at How Google, Verizon and the FCC Talks are Playing Out

Sam Gustin reporting in DailyFanance: "As Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Google forge ahead with highly publicized new plans to stream high-speed content like movies and TV shows to your living room, smartphone, telecom and cable giants like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast (CMSCA) have been intensely lobbying to maintain control over the broadband pipes they spent billions to build. Comcast is going so far as to buy a rich content factory, NBC Universal, a deal that would create a $35 billion media and delivery juggernaut."

Google Responds to Criticisms Over Proposed Net Neutrality

Responding to recent controversies over Google-Verizon deal, Richard Whitt, Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel writes: "Over the past few days there's been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon. On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become a very contentious issue, and we think it could help move the network neutrality debate forward constructively. We don't expect everyone to agree with every aspect of our proposal, but there has been a number of inaccuracies about it, and we do want to separate fact from fiction."

FCC Proposes a ‘Third Way’ of Regulating Broadband Providers

Jared Newman reporting in PC World: "Wounded from a court decision that stopped the government from regulating Internet service providers, the Federal Communications Commission has announced a new way to gain some control over the broadband industry. The proposal would let the FCC treat Internet transmissions like telephone communications, entailing more oversight, but would prevent government control over Web services, applications and e-commerce sites."