A new study funded by the European Commission found that Europeans are increasingly using Wi-Fi Internet and that this trend is set to continue.
71% of all wireless data traffic delivered to smartphones and tables in the EU in 2012 was delivered via Wi-Fi, potentially increasing to 78% by 2016. The study predicts that up to €200 billion in network cost reductions in 2016 can be expected from data traffic offloading chiefly to Wi-Fi.
Mobile data traffic is estimated to grow at 66% annually until 2017, but at the same time almost 80% of all traffic to mobile devices is predicted to come over Wi-Fi. Therefore, the study recommends that extra spectrum should be made available across the EU to support the rising demand.
