With the release of Cisco’s Virtual Networking Index (VNI), a number of intriguing and significant statistics have been brought to light. As the WBA and the ecosystem look ahead to 2020, it is important to have an understanding of these facts, as they will undoubtedly play a key role in how the ecosystem is shaped for years to come.


The Growth of Wi-Fi Hotspots

As an ecosystem, we can expect the number of global Wi-Fi hotspots (including those in the home) to absolutely skyrocket by 2020. It is expected that the number of hotspots will grow from 64 million in 2015, to well over 430 million by 2020 – this is a growth of seven times the current number.

What can be made of this? Clearly, Wi-Fi has become a necessity for the vast majority of the world’s population, and this is a fact that will only continue to be true as companies in our ecosystem look to expand into areas that, until now, have received little to no coverage (India and Africa, for example).

Another staggering fact that came out of 2015 is the fact that, for the first time, monthly Wi-Fi offload traffic exceeded monthly cellular/mobile traffic – 3.9 exabytes to 3.7 exabytes. This leads into the ballpark estimate that, by 2020, monthly Wi-Fi offload traffic will average 38.1 exabytes per month, while cellular/mobile traffic will average 30.6 exabytes per month.

The message is clear: Wi-Fi hotspots are, and will continue to be, very important (and desired) to people all around the world.

Voice-over-Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) primed for substantial growth

With the usage of VoWi-Fi continuing to grow, it is becoming very clear that this could (and should) become a basic feature of virtually any smartphone, tablet, etc.

Whereas previous VoWi-Fi offerings have been somewhat limited in terms of quality and scope of end-user experiences, we are quickly reaching a point where even non-SIM devices (such as Wi-Fi-only tablets) are able to provide an outstanding VoWi-Fi offering.

Some key statistics to take away from the forecast:

  • By the end of 2016, VoWi-Fi will exceed VoLTE in the number of minutes used per year.
  • By 2018, VoWi-Fi will exceed VoIP in the number of minutes of used per year.
  • By 2020, VoWi-Fi minutes of use will account for half – 53 percent – of all mobile IP voice traffic.
  • By 2020, the number of Wi-Fi-capable tablets and PCs (1.7 billion) will be more than three times the number of cellular-capable tablets and PCs (548 million).

For a full breakdown of the key statistics from Cisco’s forecast, take a look at the Executive Summary here.