Data traffic to rise 114-fold by 2015: Cisco

MUMBAI: Network and communications provider Cisco expects mobile data traffic in India to increase 114-fold by 2015, and consumers to download or stream more than 629 hours of video every second on broadband, the company said on Thursday as it shared its global visual networking index forecast.

The explosive growth will occur due to proliferation of tablets, mobile phones and connected appliances, larger number of internet users, faster broadband speeds and more content on video.

According to estimates of the report that charts internet growth and trends, Indian mobile data traffic will augment at a compound annual growth rate of 158%, the company revealed. Cisco anticipates that by 2015 mobile data in the Indian market will be 15 times the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2010.

Mobile data traffic will ride on the estimated spurt in the number of devices and higher connection speeds. According to Cisco’s forecast, India will have more than 1 billion networked devices in four years from now, compared to 570 million in 2010.

The estimate includes mobile phones and tablets and other machine-to-machine connected devices. Globally, Cisco anticipates the total number of connected devices to be nearly 15 billion, more than double of the world’s population.

“Growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an opportunity in the years ahead for optimizing and monetising visual, virtual and mobile Internet experiences. As architect of the next-generation Internet, Cisco stands ready to help our customers,” said Cisco’s vice president of worldwide service provider marketing Suraj Shetty.

Cisco also predicts the average mobile connection speed to grow 56-fold, reaching 1,037 kbps in four years. Globally, mobile Internet data traffic will increase 26 times from 2010 to 2015 while the study indicates Asia-Pacific region taking the top spot from North America by 2015 for generating the most traffic on Internet.

Despite a dismal broadband penetration of a little over 10 million customers, the company forecasts more number of Indians to use the Internet. Traffic over Internet is expected to jump nine-fold by 2015.

Cisco steers partners to F1 at Nurburgring

Cisco last week announced the rollout of its ‘F1 Overdrive’ programme aimed at its Commercial and SMB segment partners in India and the SAARC region.

The programme aims to accelerate growth and increase coverage while acting as a catalyst in enrolling more partners by offering special discounts and rewards. While the top performers from the programme will be eligible to travel to Nurburgring, Germany, to watch the German F1 Race LIVE, other partners can win exciting prizes like iPads, iPhones, Samsung Galaxy Tabs, Cisco Flip Cameras and Ferrari Puma jackets. The initiative will end by 15 June, 2011.

Arun Dharmalingam, Vice President, Distribution Channels, Cisco India & SAARC, said “We have successfully executed two of the biggest partner initiatives in the industry – Kick-Off based on FIFA World Cup and Grand Slam based on the Australian Open where partner participation has been phenomenal. We had several partners from all across the region including Sri Lanka, participate and win in the previous programmes we have rolled out. This initiative, F1 Overdrive will be more elaborate and at a larger scale, helping us accelerate sales and increase coverage in the SMB segment.”

The aim of this initiative is to cater to the needs of the SMB market in the region which has been largely untapped. Cisco has identified this potential and introduced products specifically catering to this segment that will help its partners capture this opportunity. F1 Overdrive, like its predecessors, will be categorised according to geographical locations and points will be rewarded to each participant basis pre-determined parameters. There are numerous products participating under this initiative: Routers (800 and ISR series), Switches, UCS C Series & the complete Small Business portfolio.

To create awareness about the programme and its products, Cisco will also conduct a series of roadshows across the region. There would also be various exciting activities & branding exercises conducted at partners offices and will include remote controlled and other virtual car racing games designed to excite and motivate the partners. An elaborate communication plan has been rolled out and Cisco has introduced a dedicated microsite - http://www.ciscof1overdrive.com/ which will help its partners to register and keep track of their scores through the programme.

Broadband, IPv6 Forums partner for standards

In the lead-up to World IPv6 Day, Broadband Forum and the IPv6 Forum have announced a partnership to facilitate adoption of the protocol.

The two Forums revealed they would collaborate to incorporate Broadband Forum network specifications in the IPv6 Forum's Certification and Logo Programme.

The specifications are from the Broadband Forum's BroadbandSuite 4.0, released in March, which Technical Chair Christophe Alter said “is already becoming a globally accepted reference on IPv6.”

Both companies said they would actively support World IPv6 day next Wednesday.

The event aims to serve as a 24-hour “test-flight” for IPv6. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Akamai and others have agreed to offer content over IPv6 over the day.

As well as over 300 websites, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other large network companies are involved.

In April, regional internet registrar APNIC revealed it had started to ration its remaining IPv4 addresses after reaching the last block in its remaining pool.