Globally, the average broadband connection (primarily residential subscribers and some business users) generates approximately 11.4 gigabytes of Internet traffic per month, according to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Usage statistics released this week. The top 1 percent of global subscribers generated more than 20 percent of all traffic, while the top 10 percent of global subscribers generated more than 60 percent of all traffic. 
Cisco gathers the statistics from participating service providers representing the mobile, wireline, and cable segments throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and various emerging markets.
Some highlights:
- In an average day over the reported quarter, Internet "prime time" spans from approximately 9 p.m to 1 a.m. around the world. This contrasts with broadcast TV prime time, which is generally from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. across most global markets.
- 25 percent (or 93.3 megabytes per day per connection) of global Internet traffic is generated during the Internet "prime time" period.
- A peak Internet hour has 20 percent more traffic than a nonpeak Internet hour. The peak Internet hour averages 18 megabytes of traffic per connection (per hour), while nonpeak Internet hours average 15 megabytes of traffic per connection (per hour).
- The peak Internet visual networking hour has almost 25 percent more traffic than average hourly Internet traffic.
Forecast
