Cisco: IP traffic to hit 667 exabytes by 2013

Cisco is not directly involved in discussions on whether service providers should be charging customers for extra IP networking use, Shetty said.

"We are helping them pursue how to monetize it – one area is by tiering different services," Shetty said. "Then there are technologies like DVR – I pay $10 a month extra for DVR, and the third one we are actively working on is how can I localize content and provide content based on my personalization. Once you bring it to IP, we can do a lot of things."

Cisco is meeting with service providers at the board level and with regulators to present usage data and discuss how it should impact regulation. "We have met with regulators in the US, Europe and Asia, and they use this data very heavily," Shetty said. "This is a long-term planning view. Because we can dissect the data in so many ways, by application or by region – it gives them a view of what they can monetize, what kind of polices should be applied. We have been having these conversations."

Among the other factoids of the Cisco VIN are that, by 2013:

• Global online video will approach 60% of consumer Internet traffic (up from 32% in 2009).
• Global online video will generate 4.5 billion DVDs worth of traffic each month.
• Global Internet video will be 6 times what it was in 2009 and 14 times what it was in 2008.
• IP traffic in North America will reach 13 exabytes per month, slightly ahead of Western Europe, which will reach 12.5 exabytes per month, and behind Asia Pacific (AsiaPac), where IP traffic will reach 21 exabytes per month
• The Middle East and Africa will grow the fastest, with a compound annual growth rate of 51 percent, reaching 1 exabyte per month.
• VoD traffic will increase 8-fold.
• There will be 300 million HDTV households worldwide.
• Business Internet will grow at a CAGR of 32%, while IP WAN will grow at a CAGR of 36%.
• Almost 64% of the world's mobile data traffic will be video.