A quick look at the Internet on a global scale today and it is clearly on a path of growth both in terms of usage and capacity. The good news is that with the growing demand for services, prices are also coming down. With more competitive options, Internet usage will be more available to more people throughout the world. Increased availability, of course, will put more pressure on those providing IP Transit.
According to TeleGeography’s (News - Alert) Global Internet Geography study, IP Transit was examined. This comprehensive source of data and analysis measures the market for international Internet services. The latest report provided interesting results, while it also painted a broad picture of international Internet traffic.
For overall IP Transit throughout the global Internet, traffic rose as much as 56 percent in 2010. The good news is that capacity also grew to handle the traffic as carriers added 13.2 Tbps of new international Internet capacity. At the same time, network utilization remained stable.
Intra-Asian links experienced peak utilization rates of IP Transit that were 50 percent higher than on intra-European links. Trans-Pacific traffic peak utilization in 2009 also increased to match intra-Asian traffic after it was lagging behind between 2005 and 2008. For the Trans-Atlantic traffic, growth took it to the third-highest, overtaking the U.S.-Latin American traffic between 2007 and 2008.
In Africa, IP Transit has grown, yet it still is lagging compared to the rest of the world. When combining all of Africa, it has about one-third as much international Internet connectivity as a small European nation. When thinking in terms of market concentration, the five largest carriers in Africa still only account for roughly 37 percent of African bandwidth.
IP Transit in Latin America is something to watch. The five largest carriers own and operate as much as 77 percent of the countries’ international bandwidth. Prices are also going down in these markets, expanding reach for IP Transit services.
At the same time, IP Tansit prices in major U.S. and European cities are sitting at the lowest in the world and continue to fall at a rate that is as rapid as other higher-priced Asian and Latin American cities.
With so much activity taking place in the IP Tansit market, opportunities continue to grow and users continue to gain new access. The next report will be on to watch as new demands are sure to be created.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Erin Monda