After crossing the 1 zettabyte (ZB)[1] end-user Internet traffic threshold in 2023, mobile broadband traffic is estimated to be at 1.5 ZB in 2025. Fixed broadband traffic is almost five times greater, at 7.3 ZB in 2025, up from 6.2 ZB the previous year.
Given the infrastructure availability and connection technology, data-heavy Internet traffic is mostly carried over fixed broadband networks, which also comprise mobile devices and IoTs that connect through Wi-Fi networks to the open Internet, when in reach. Nevertheless, since 2021, mobile broadband traffic has grown on average by 19 per cent annually, faster than the 16 per cent growth for fixed broadband traffic.
The 17.9 GB average monthly mobile broadband traffic per subscription in high-income countries is roughly eight times the 2.2 GB average in low-income countries. Put another way, an average user in a high-income country generates more traffic in just four days than a user in a low-income country does in a whole month.
Though regional disparities in mobile broadband traffic per subscription are smaller than those experienced across income groups, regional disparities remain striking. The average monthly traffic in Africa is 5.2 GB per subscription, which is about one-third of the 15.3 GB global average, and one-quarter of the average monthly traffic of 22 GB per subscription in the CIS region, which has the highest traffic intensity of any region.
Disparities are less pronounced for fixed broadband traffic. Monthly traffic per subscription is similar across low- and middle-income economies at between 248 and 310 GB, but is still only about half the 505 GB level observed in high-income countries. However, high-income countries have seen faster deployment of fibre-optic networks, which has contributed to widening the fixed broadband traffic gap with the rest of the world.
In the LDCs, the average traffic per subscription for fixed and mobile broadband represents about one-third of the global average. In LLDCs, traffic per subscription values are about half the global average. In SIDS, a diverse group that includes some LDCs as well as advanced economies such as Singapore, traffic per subscription is in line with the world average for both fixed and mobile broadband.
[1] 1 zettabyte (ZB) = 103 exabytes (EB) = 1015 MB.