The regional distribution of this traffic demand highlights global economic trends as well. Jeff Orr, senior analyst, mobile devices, at ABI Research, commented: “Today, and for most of our forecast period, modems and routers in Western Europe will generate the highest levels of mobile data traffic, but by an ever-decreasing margin. In 2014, we expect the Asia-Pacific region to overtake Western Europe as the largest source of demand for this traffic.”
The largest contribution to this demand still comes from USB modems, with general web and Internet access the leading application by a wide margin, followed by video streaming and TV viewing and – again at a much lower level – audio streaming. Peer to peer and VoIP applications contribute relatively little to the overall usage mix due to operator service restrictions and/or monthly data usage caps.
“This research continues to demonstrate devices such as modems and routers are driving the majority of mobile data traffic,” noted Orr. “It’s not smartphones, nor computers with embedded radios. Versatile, aftermarket modem products are really driving mobile data traffic on the world’s networks.”