Global Internet Capacity Grows 23% to 2.26 Petabits per Second
International internet bandwidth reached 2,259 Tbps in 2026, a 23% increase year over year. Africa saw the fastest regional growth at 35% CAGR from 2022 to 2026, followed by Oceania at 25%. Traffic growth mirrors bandwidth expansion, with both average and peak international traffic rising 24% annually over the same period.
The 2026 figures mark the fourth consecutive year of roughly 23% annual bandwidth expansion, meaning global capacity has more than doubled since 2022. Regional disparities remain pronounced, with Africa's 35% compound growth rate outpacing all other areas, while Oceania's 25% rate placed it second. Traffic patterns closely track capacity, with both average and peak international traffic rising 24% annually across the same four-year window.
Several structural forces will shape future demand. AI traffic, while growing rapidly at 80-90% annually on access networks, still represents a negligible share compared to streaming and social media. Meanwhile, content providers, cloud companies, and CDNs increasingly operate private backbones that bypass the public internet, and caching continues to localize traffic patterns. Port speeds are migrating toward 100 GigE as standard, with 400 GigE gaining traction in Europe and the U.S.
This sustained bandwidth growth could meaningfully affect global economic participation, particularly in developing regions where Africa's rapid expansion may enable broader access to digital services, education, and commerce. However, the trend toward private networks and localized caching suggests that much of this capacity serves major content providers rather than individual users directly. As transport costs fall, smaller markets may benefit from cheaper connectivity to global hubs, but the gap between infrastructure-rich and infrastructure-poor regions could persist or widen depending on how investment distributes across emerging markets.