The way in which consumers interact with the physical world has changed dramatically in recent years, and with incoming disruptive new use cases such as AR/VR, immersive streaming experiences, devices of the future and things yet to be designed, wireless technologies are reaching an historical peak in terms of relevance and data demand.

In 2020, global internet traffic, both wired and wireless – surpassed approximately 200+ Exabytes a month. What does this mean for Wi-Fi? Within the calendar year Wi-Fi alone accounts for 49% of total data used, which leads to 1200+ Exabytes or 1.2+ Zettabytes.

What is a Zettabyte?

  • One sextillion bytes
  • Approximately 10 to the 21st power
  • 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
  • “Worthless” comparison with DVD data figures
  • These DVDs, if all laid out, would cover the entire land area of the United Kingdom.

This will be the first time in history that an access technology reaches a Zettabyte mark. 2021 will be the #ZettaWiFi year!

Historically, it’s been 12+ years (2008) since the total amount of mobile traffic reached the mark of the Exabyte for the first time. What were the top consumer trends that led us to this point?

Exabyte <> Zettabyte cycle trends:

  1. New digital interfaces > Mobile-centric world with the introduction and adoption boom of the smartphone
  2. Democratizing data and affordable connectivity > Wi-Fi massification, “all you can eat” plans
  3. Digital natives > Video traffic and social networks as the main traffic drivers
  4. Subscription models > The dawn of new cloud-based service-oriented architectures

Looking ahead, how long will it be before we reach the Yottabyte figure – the #YottaWiFi year ?

Regardless of predictions, there are three critical areas that are essential to manage the Yottabyte Era:

  1. 1-Data service > RAN convergence: multiple radios with one experience, always best connected & policy mechanisms
  2. End-to-end security, privacy, QoS and seamless onboarding > OpenRoaming & Identity management
  3. Disruptive spectrum models > Optimize allocation of spectrum for unlicensed (Wi-Fi 6E & Wi-Fi 7) and licensed use

End-to-end service delivery, along with a sustainable quality of experience, has become fundamental. There has never been better a time to define a roadmap with key programs that can shape the connectivity landscape and help it excel in achieving the foreseeable #YottaWiFi year, cutting the last 12-year cycle mark in half.

This is good news for the industry, but the expected data demand will ultimately break the existing International System of Measurements Units, meaning that a new method must be defined.

We would like to put out a call to all technologists and innovators to join us on this mission and join us at the Innovation Forum, hosted by the WBA’s CTO Group. Please register your interest here: https://wballiance.com/innovation-forum

The Innovation Forum Founders Roundtable will be hosted on June 21st. For more information please contact pmo@wballiance.com

For more information, check out the following resources:

Cisco Annual Internet Report


Bruno Tomas

Program Director, Wireless Broadband Alliance

bruno@wballiance.com