August 29, 2008

Tabulation and Estimation of Internet Traffic in Japan

Announcement of tabulation results as of May 2008
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) announces the results of tabulation and estimation of traffic as of May 2008, accomplished through assistance and/or cooperation with six Internet Service Providers ("cooperative ISPs"1) and academia2, in order to understand the current status of Internet traffic (communication traffic) in Japan.

Key points
The total volume of broadband subscriber3 download traffic in Japan as of May 2008 was estimated to average approximately 880 Gbps, which grew about 1.2 times (21.9%) in one year.

Meanwhile, the traffic volume per contract, which was calculated based on the number of subscribers for broadband services3 in Japan, continues to grow since around 2006.

As for the traffic exchanged between ISPs, the volume of the incoming traffic from overseas ISPs to the cooperative ISPs continues to surge since May 2006. In one year from May 2007, it grew about 1.3 times (31.1%).

Notes:
1. Networks of six ISPs: Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), NTT Communications, K-Opti.com, KDDI (including the now defunct Poweredcom), SoftBank BB, and SoftBank Telecom
2. Prof. ESAKI Hiroshi, the University of Tokyo; Assistant Prof. KATO Akira, the University of Tokyo; Mr. CHO Kenjiro, Researcher at IIJ; and Assistant Prof. FUKUDA Kensuke, National Institute of Informatics
3. Subscribers for broadband services in this tabulation refer to the subscribers for DSL or FTTH services. However, the traffic volume per contract to broadband service was calculated based on the number of subscribers for FTTH access service, DSL access service, CATV access service and FWA access service.

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http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/contact.html

International Policy Division,
Global ICT Strategy Bureau, MIC
TEL: +81 3 5253 5920 / FAX: +81 3 5253 5924