Mobility Revolution: 8 Shocking Stats From Cisco's 2014 Mobile Traffic Forecast

Mobile Data Explosion

Not only is mobile data traffic growing across the globe, but the pace at which it's growing is accelerating each year.

According to Cisco, mobile data traffic grew 81 percent in 2013 alone, generating 1.5 Exabytes of data per month in the latter part of the year, compared with 820 Petabyes per month by the end of 2012. In fact, mobile data traffic in 2013 was 18 times more than all traffic across the global Internet in 2000.

And, as Cisco sees it, that growth isn't going to slow anytime soon. The report says that mobile data traffic is expected to reach an annual run rate of 190 Exabytes in 2018 -- or the equivalent of every person on earth sharing 14 Instagram photos every day for a year.