The amount of information transmitted globally over the Internet will continue to double each year over the next five years, according to research by IDC.
In 2002, the traffic volume was 180 petabits per day (one petabit = 1 million gigabits). This will increase to 5,175 petabits per day by 2007, according to IDC.
The main driver will be a move to broadband access by current users rather than growth in subscribers to the Internet, according to IDC. Broadband adoption by consumers will be the largest and fastest-growing sector of the Internet traffic market by 2007, IDC said.
By that time, consumers will account for 60 percent of all Internet traffic compared to 40 percent for business users.