Global Internet Backbone Traffic Grows 40% in 2012

International Internet capacity growth fell to the lowest pace in five years, decreasing from 68 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2012, TeleGeography says, though international Internet bandwidth continues to grow rapidly, more than doubling between 2010 and 2012, to 77 Tbps. 

That should not come as a terrible surprise. There is a "law of large numbers" at work here. Every new venture that gains end user traction shows high growth rates at first, from a low installed base. As the base of users or customers grows, growth rates naturally slow. 

With the installed base of capacity usage now a large number, growth rates are destined to slow, for the same reason. 

Average international Internet traffic grew 35 percent in 2012, down from 39 percent in 2011, and peak traffic grew 33 percent, well below the 57 percent increase recorded in 2011.

On the other hand, content delivery networks and local caching technologies do reduce the need for new long-haul capacity by storing popular content closer to the end-users.