By 2020, mobile data traffic will grow nine-fold in South Africa, according to new research.

The 10th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) mobile forecast predicts that mobile data traffic in South Africa will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 55% between 2015 and 2020.

In South Africa, 63% of mobile connections will be “smart” connections by 2020, up from 22% in 2015, the research predicts.

The number of 4G/LTE connections will grow eight-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 50%, and will account for 45,1% of total mobile data traffic in South Africa by 2020, compared to 21,7% at the end of 2015, the report says.

Worldwide, more people will have mobile phones (5,4bn) than electricity (5,3bn), running water (3,5bn) and cars (2,8bn) by 2020, according to the Cisco research.

Mobile video will have the highest growth rate of any mobile application. In South Africa, video will make up 73% of mobile data traffic by 2020, compared to 52% at the end of 2015.

Consumer and business demand for higher video resolutions, more bandwidth and processing speed will increase the use of 4G connected devices. 4G connectivity share worldwide is projected to surpass 2G by 2018 and 3G by 2020.

In South Africa, video will make up 73% of mobile data traffic by 2020

Another big growth area over the coming five years will be in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. In South Africa, M2M traffic will grow 24-fold from 2015 to 2020 to account for 8% of total mobile data traffic by 2020, compared to 3% at the end of 2015, according to the Cisco report. By 2020, M2M connections will represent 26,4% of mobile-connected devices, up from 7,7% in 2015.

There will also be enormous growth in Wi-Fi, according to the research report. Globally, total Wi-Fi hotspots, including home hotspots, will grow seven-fold from 2015 (64m) to 2020 (432m). Globally, home hotspots will grow from 57m in 2015 to 423m in 2020. — © 2016 NewsCentral Media