In a previous post I reported on the growing number of SMS messages and mobile voice minutes in Germany in 2011 from the recent report of the German regulator. Another interesting number contained in the report is the reported growth of mobile data volume. Instead of the exponential growth often portrayed, growth is actually slowing (see page 87):
- In 2008, 11.47 million GB of data was transferred in mobile networks, followed by 33.29 million GB in 2009. That's a 3x increase
- In 2010, 65,41 million GB of data was transferred in mobile network in Germany, that's a 1x increase from the value a year earlier
- In 2011, 93 million GB of data was transferred in mobile networks in Germany, that is "only" 0.5x more than the year before.
In other words: While the growth is still phenomenal the year over year increase is slowing down while the number of users is rising, 28.6 million UMTS users in Germany in 2011 compared to 21.2 million a year earlier.
And another little number to ponder on before I close: 93 million GB of mobile data traffic in 2011, that's 0.093 billion GB. Compare that to the 3.7 billion GB of data that was exchanged over DSL and cable in Germany the same year. That's 40 times that number and it has increased by 500 million GB every year for the past few years! The addition in one year alone is 5x more than the total mobile Internet traffic of 2011. That's something to ponder upon…
Thanks for the data and analysis. Let’s stop parroting and start using the brain.