Growth in international internet traffic has accelerated this year, despite the recession.
Traffic grew 79% in 2009, up from 61% last year thanks in part to soaring demand in emerging markets such as south Asia and the Middle East, where traffic more than doubled.
However, research firm TeleGeography said even mature markets had posted heavy growth, with peak US-Canada traffic up 59%.
Fears that carriers would cut back on infrastructure spending because of the recession were also unfounded, TeleGeography said.
Network operators have added 9.4 Tbps of new capacity this year - a 64% increase, and exceeding the 8.7 Tbps in existence just two years ago.
“While some operators have postponed network upgrades, investments in new capacity have continued, and aggregate peak utilization remains well within historical ranges,” said research director Alan Mauldin.
He noted that while aggregate peak utilization on Asian networks increased from 56% to 62% between 2008 and 2009, yet utilization was still lower in 2009 than in 2006 despite the fact that traffic volumes have quadrupled since 2006.
Since 2007, the annual growth rate of international internet capacity has exceeded 60%.