TECHNOLOGY
Telcos have unloaded their vast data centre empires for billions . As 5G and IoT drive global data centre demand , what ’ s next for mobile operators ?
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The role of the data centre is becoming increasingly critical to the telecommunications industry . All over the world , the services that telcos are required to provide are changing in terms of both scope and technical complexity . The amount of global data and voice traffic has risen steeply in the last decade . In the first quarter of 2020 alone , more than 45 exabytes of data and voice traffic passed through telco networks . To put that in perspective , an exabyte is equivalent to 1mn terabytes , or a 237,823 year-long Zoom call . It ’ s actually been estimated that 5 exabytes is about the data equivalent of every single word ever uttered out loud in all of human history . The 45.39 exabytes of data transmitted across telco networks in the first quarter of this year is an almost inconceivably large figure . Compare it with the 0.92 exabytes transmitted in the first quarter of 2012 and you start to get an idea of the sheer scale of this growth . This trend shows no sign of slowing down , either , with ongoing 5G
SEPTEMBER 2020